hex mud pump free sample

A MUD PUMP that is two-thirds theweight and up to one-third smaller thana typical mud pump is being tested inNorway before a production model willbe installed on a rig in the field in 2003.National Oilwells Hex Pump 150, a1,500 HP unit, has been under development for the past two years. The company also plans to offer a 2,400 HP versionas well.

Any pulsation created by mud pumpsacts as noise or interference on the pulses being transmitted through the mudcolumn.Because of the slight compressibility ofthe mud, we do get small pulses in theflow but we achieve about 92% less pulsation compared with a Triplex pump.That is achievable due to the mechani-

would normally be used for two Triplexpumps can accommodate three of thesepumps.Theoretically it provides 50% morepumping capability in the same sizepump room.While the final cost has yet to be determined, it is anticipated it will bebetween 20%-25% more than a Triplexpump, Mr Whyte noted.

A specially-profiled camrotatesabovethepistons/plungers to producethe pumping action withspecific timing to significantly minimize output pulsation compared with traditional pumps.

There are about the samenumber of moving partsand mechanical components as a Triplex pumpbut the cam is speciallydesigned specifically forthe Hex Pump and is produced at an outside facility rather than at NationalOilwell.

The cam operation is drivenby two AC motors and produces a more constant piston/plunger speed and flowrate, resulting in longer lifeof the valves and mechanical components, accordingto the company.Due to the AC drive flexibility, the pump can performboth high pressure or highflow operation withoutchanging the liner size.

National Oilwells new design Hex Pump is undergoing testing in Norway beforebeing installed on a rig in the field in 2003. The pump is two-thirds the weight andone-third smaller than a typical mud pump.

In addition to the pump offeringincreased performance, efficiency andversatility due to its size and output, theunit also produces nearly zero pulsationcompared with a mud pump typicallyfound on rigs.The pump mechanically has zero pulsation, said Jason Whyte, New Product Implementation Manager for National Oilwell.An advantage of zero pulsation relatesto downhole measurements. A lot oftools use measurement while drilling(MWD) that relies on mud pulse telemetry to send signals back to the surface.The tools produce a pulse in the mudthat travels up the mud column to thesurface.

cal operation of the pump. There is asingle overhead cam that rotates as itoperates the cylinders in and outthrough the suction and discharge phases.The way the phases are timed with eachother, it achieves zero pulsation.The cams profile also helps result inzero pulsation. It is a specialized profilethat helps reduce pulsation. NationalOilwell has a patent pending on the cam.The lighter weight and smaller size ofthe Hex Pump could enable rig upgradeswhere there is a fixed amount of spaceto install additional mud pumps.Because the shape of the Hex Pump isround, Mr Whyte said, the space that

The horsepower increasecomes from upgradessuch as larger capacityA/C motors as well as some internalcomponents that will be upgraded forthe higher capacity. The pumps mainstructure will remain the same.Other features of the Hex Pump include: More consistent plunger speed Reduced wear and maintenance Cartridge style valve system for easiermaintenance Lower peak flow rate through valves Smaller fluid end components for easier handling AC motors to achieve either high pressure or high flow without changing linerIsize

This paper focuses on the operational experience that was gained during field test of the Hex Pump on a land rig in Jasper, Texas in October 2003. This field test showed that the pulsation frequency in the flow from the Hex Pump did not interfere with the MWD-measurements, providing a much cleaner signal to the directional driller. Also, the overall power consumption on the rig was reduced due to use of AC-motors.

If you run a mud rig, you have probably figured out that the mud pump is the heart of the rig. Without it, drilling stops. Keeping your pump in good shape is key to productivity. There are some tricks I have learned over the years to keeping a pump running well.

First, you need a baseline to know how well your pump is doing. When it’s freshly rebuilt, it will be at the top efficiency. An easy way to establish this efficiency is to pump through an orifice at a known rate with a known fluid. When I rig up, I hook my water truck to my pump and pump through my mixing hopper at idle. My hopper has a ½-inch nozzle in it, so at idle I see about 80 psi on the pump when it’s fresh. Since I’m pumping clear water at a known rate, I do this on every job.

As time goes on and I drill more hole, and the pump wears, I start seeing a decrease in my initial pressure — 75, then 70, then 65, etc. This tells me I better order parts. Funny thing is, I don’t usually notice it when drilling. After all, I am running it a lot faster, and it’s hard to tell the difference in a few gallons a minute until it really goes south. This method has saved me quite a bit on parts over the years. When the swabs wear they start to leak. This bypass pushes mud around the swab, against the liners, greatly accelerating wear. By changing the swab at the first sign of bypass, I am able to get at least three sets of swabs before I have to change liners. This saves money.

Before I figured this out, I would sometimes have to run swabs to complete failure. (I was just a hand then, so it wasn’t my rig.) When I tore the pump down to put in swabs, lo-and-behold, the liners were cut so badly that they had to be changed too. That is false economy. Clean mud helps too. A desander will pay for itself in pump parts quicker than you think, and make a better hole to boot. Pump rods and packing last longer if they are washed and lubricated. In the oilfield, we use a petroleum-based lube, but that it not a good idea in the water well business. I generally use water and dish soap. Sometimes it tends to foam too much, so I add a few tablets of an over the counter, anti-gas product, like Di-Gel or Gas-Ex, to cut the foaming.

Maintenance on the gear end of your pump is important, too. Maintenance is WAY cheaper than repair. The first, and most important, thing is clean oil. On a duplex pump, there is a packing gland called an oil-stop on the gear end of the rod. This is often overlooked because the pump pumps just as well with a bad oil-stop. But as soon as the fluid end packing starts leaking, it pumps mud and abrasive sand into the gear end. This is a recipe for disaster. Eventually, all gear ends start knocking. The driller should notice this, and start planning. A lot of times, a driller will change the oil and go to a higher viscosity oil, thinking this will help cushion the knock. Wrong. Most smaller duplex pumps are splash lubricated. Thicker oil does not splash as well, and actually starves the bearings of lubrication and accelerates wear. I use 85W90 in my pumps. A thicker 90W140 weight wears them out a lot quicker. You can improve the “climbing” ability of the oil with an additive, like Lucas, if you want. That seems to help.

Outside the pump, but still an important part of the system, is the pop-off, or pressure relief valve. When you plug the bit, or your brother-in-law closes the discharge valve on a running pump, something has to give. Without a good, tested pop-off, the part that fails will be hard to fix, expensive and probably hurt somebody. Pop-off valve are easily overlooked. If you pump cement through your rig pump, it should be a standard part of the cleanup procedure. Remove the shear pin and wash through the valve. In the old days, these valves were made to use a common nail as the shear pin, but now nails come in so many grades that they are no longer a reliable tool. Rated shear pins are available for this. In no case should you ever run an Allen wrench! They are hardened steel and will hurt somebody or destroy your pump.

One last thing that helps pump maintenance is a good pulsation dampener. It should be close to the pump discharge, properly sized and drained after every job. Bet you never thought of that one. If your pump discharge goes straight to the standpipe, when you finish the job your standpipe is still full of fluid. Eventually the pulsation dampener will water-log and become useless. This is hard on the gear end of the pump. Open a valve that drains it at the end of every job. It’ll make your pump run smoother and longer.

As an integral part of onshore and offshore drilling, mud pumps circulate drilling fluids to facilitate drilling oil and natural gas wells. Mud pumps stabilize pressure and support the well during the drilling process and drilling fluids provide friction reduction and a means to remove cuttings. A leak detection system for hex pumps was created for a hex mud pump with six pistons, six suction valves, and six discharge valves. The six pistons are driven by a rotating, asymmetric cam. The system monitors the suction and discharge valves using accelerometers.

Valve leaks in piston pumps are often discovered at a late stage when the leaks are so severe that they induce large discharge pressure fluctuations and create washout damage (Figure 1). When a severe leak is detected, it is localized manually by listening to the fluid modules while the pump is running but it is difficult to uniquely localize the leak and distinguish between a suction valve leak and a discharge valve leak.

Human exposure to hazards is the main disadvantage of manual detection, verification, and localization. Mud pumps convert large amounts of power and often output high pressures up to 350 Bar discharge. Additional equipment in pump rooms also generates high acoustic noise pressure levels that can exceed 100 dBA and cause health and hearing damage if humans are not correctly protected.

During a vibration monitoring project for hex pumps, a Norwegian oil well company discovered the possibility of detecting leaks using accelerometers. Vibrations were recorded at different locations, both on the pump and on the discharge line, along with suction pressure, discharge pressure, and pump speeds for different pump conditions. A 20-kHz sampling frequency was used and 5-second snapshots were taken with intervals of a few minutes. On one occasion, the vibration signature significantly changed during a 15-minute period; the spot was a growing valve leak.

Based on that encouraging experience, the company wanted to include this condition-based maintenance system as a standard feature on all hex pumps, so it developed the system as a standalone module to add to the existing hex pump control system. Slightly simplified, it consists of the following components: accelerometers (one per valve block), a proximity sensor picking up pump speed and phase, a discharge pressure sensor, an embedded monitoring system (an NI CompactRIO system with acquisition modules for powering the accelerometers and acquiring high-frequency data), signal processing software and alarm logics implemented using NI LabVIEW software running on the CompactRIO monitoring system, and an HMI user interface developed in LabVIEW.

The data acquisition and signal processing are briefly described by the following steps: Capture high-rate data (25-kHz sample rate) from all sensors during a short time interval covering at least one pump cycle.

The default sampling frequency of the signals is 25 kHz but the system can handle higher rates if necessary. The bandpass filter is optional but experience shows that it improves contrast and detection sensitivity. Signal strength normalization by the median vibration level makes the detection nearly independent of the inherent ambient vibrations, which increase rapidly with increasing pump speed and discharge pressure. The last requirement — that the detected leaks last for a set time — eliminates erratic alarms caused by debris or large particles that can cause temporary seal malfunction.

Figure 2 shows a diagnosis screen from the hex pump control screen delivered by the leak detection system. It shows a very clear overview of the valve status and a vibration level trend of all valves.

The NI tools for prototyping the system provided an embedded deployment system that can reliably retrofit to existing pumps. In comparison to other leak detection methods based on analyzing discharge pressure, the vibration-based methods are more robust and reliable, especially when it comes to localizing a leak. Studies showed that an alternative method can be applied for shaft-driven piston pumps having either an integrated valve block or split blocks with a high vibration transfer. Leak localization for this kind of pump is mainly based on the phase of the pulsating vibration level. It can be used to localize one dominating leaky valve at a time.

Created specifically for drilling equipment inspectors and others in the oil and gas industry, the Oil Rig Mud Pump Inspection app allows you to easily document the status and safety of your oil rigs using just a mobile device. Quickly resolve any damage or needed maintenance with photos and GPS locations and sync to the cloud for easy access. The app is completely customizable to fit your inspection needs and works even without an internet signal.Try Template

A mud pump is a reciprocating piston/plunger pump designed to circulate drilling fluid under high pressure (up to 7,500 psi (52,000 kPa)) down the drill string and back up the annulus. A duplex mud pump is an important part of the equipment used for oil well drilling.

Duplex mud pumps (two piston/plungers) have generally been replaced by the triplex pump, but are still common in developing countries. Two later developments are the hex pump with six vertical pistons/plungers, and various quintuplex’s with five horizontal piston/plungers. The advantages that Duplex mud pumps have over convention triplex pumps is a lower mud noise which assists with better Measurement while drilling and Logging while drilling decoding.

Use duplex mud pumps to make sure that the circulation of the mud being drilled or the supply of liquid reaches the bottom of the well from the mud cleaning system. Despite being older technology than the triplex mud pump, the duplex mud pumps can use either electricity or diesel, and maintenance is easy due to their binocular floating seals and safety valves.

A mud pump is composed of many parts including mud pump liner, mud pump piston, modules, hydraulic seat pullers, and other parts. Parts of a mud pump:housing itself

Duplex pumps are used to provide a secondary means of fuel transfer in the event of a failure of the primary pump. Each pump in a duplex set is sized to meet the full flow requirements of the system. Pump controllers can be set for any of the following common operating modes:Lead / Lag (Primary / Secondary): The lead (primary) pump is selected by the user and the lag (secondary pump operates when a failure of the primary pump is detected.

Alternating: Operates per Lead / Lag (Primary / Secondary) except that the operating pump and lead / lag status alternate on consecutive starts. A variation is to alternate the pumps based on the operating time (hour meter) of the lead pump.

An integral part of onshore and offshore drilling, mud pumps circulate the drilling fluids used to facilitate drilling oil and natural gas wells. Used to stabilize pressure and support the well during the drilling process, drilling fluids also provide friction reduction and a means to remove cuttings.

While drilling with some type of fluid has been in practice for centuries, the term "drilling mud" was coined when a herd of cattle was driven through a wet field near Spindletop, and the resulting mud was used to lubricate the drillstring and drill bit. Drilling fluids have come a long way since those early days of drilling, and offshore mud pumps are constantly taxed to help operators find and develop hydrocarbons in harsher, deeper and more difficult locations.

"A mud pump delivers drilling fluid from the mud tanks, through the top drive, down the drill string and through the bit," explained Juan Lerma, Mud Pumps Product Line Manager at National Oilwell Varco. "When the mud exits the bit, it travels back to the surface carrying the cuttings made by the bit where it flows over a shale-shaker removing the cuttings, cleaning the mud and returning it to the tanks, where it"s used over and over again."

"A mud pump is one of the critical and required pieces of equipment for a drilling rig whether on land or offshore," Lerma stated. "Offshore, where real estate is at a premium, mud pumps are configured with a compact top-mounted drive system, reducing the overall length with a smaller package and strategically placing it in the pump room for permanent installation."

"Jackups semis and drillships all use the same mud pumps; however, the number of pumps installed in the pump rooms changes from rig to rig depending on the drilling specifications," explained Lerma.

Additionally, the rock formations and pressure encountered when drilling may vary; HT/HP and environmental conditions also may affect the drilling process, as well as the drilling fluids chosen and mud pumps required.

"As the drilling programs require higher flows and higher pressures, it is necessary to increase pressure ratings and either increase the number of mud pumps required or utilize larger capacity mud pumps," Lerma continued. "Most early jackups utilized two mud pumps and piping systems rated for 5000 psi work pressures and 1600 horsepower, while most of today"s jackups have 7500 psi working pressure and up to four 2200 HP pumps piping systems."

According to information gathered by premium rig data service RigLogix, National Oilwell Varco leads the pack in providing mud pumps to offshore oil rigs. Of the top six brands of mud pumps, NOV supplies four of them, garnering more than 70% of the offshore mud pump market.

Those leading NOV brands include National Oilwell, Continental Emsco (which was acquired by NOV in 1999), National and NOV. The other leading mud pump system is provided by Gardner Denver and is the third most popular type of system offshore. Additionally, Lewco, a division of Rowan, has about 4% of the offshore mud pump market, putting it fifth on the list of leading suppliers.

With more than four decades of experience providing the offshore industry with mud pumps, Lerma revealed that the company has been able to sustain such a high market share by constantly transforming the product to meet the needs of the industry. As offshore drilling programs have required higher flows and pressures, the company has strived to provide the best quality equipment, while maintaining the lowest cost of ownership.

To better serve its offshore clients, the company developed the Hex Pump in the last several years, and this new line of mud pumps has proven a success in offshore waters worldwide. Boasting 2400 HP, the Hex pump is capable of delivering up to 1,034 gallons of drilling fluids per minute, making it one of the most powerful mud pumps on the market today.

In 2004, the first two Hex Pumps were deployed on a Global Santa Fe rig working offshore West Africa, and in 2005, both the Noble Max Smith and the Noble All While started using the Hex Pump as well. In fact, the Noble Al White, working in the harsh conditions of the North Sea, was the first rig to be solely dependent on the Hex Pumps with two of them located in its pump room, and the rig now has more than 8,000 hours of successful drilling operations using the system.

"The first drillship to use the system, Transocean"s Discoverer Clear Leader just started drilling in the Gulf of Mexico with five Hex Pump systems," said Lerma. "Additionally, the soon-to-start-drilling Discoverer Americas houses four Hex Pumps, and the soon-to-be-delivered Discoverer Inspiration will have five."

The 2,200-hp mud pump for offshore applications is a single-acting reciprocating triplex mud pump designed for high fluid flow rates, even at low operating speeds, and with a long stroke design. These features reduce the number of load reversals in critical components and increase the life of fluid end parts.

The pump’s critical components are strategically placed to make maintenance and inspection far easier and safer. The two-piece, quick-release piston rod lets you remove the piston without disturbing the liner, minimizing downtime when you’re replacing fluid parts.