Normally, the drilling mud recycling system is consisting of mud recycling tank skid and mud mixing tank skid. On
the mud recycling tank skid, the solids control equipment like shakers, mud cleaner, and even decanter centrifuge unit will be installed for removing the cuttings and useless solid particles in the drilling fluids. After several times recycling, the useful mud materials will loss together with the cuttings, and then the mud engineer need add new mud materials into the drilling fluids to maintain the proper mud property for the drilling job. The mud mixing unit is the equipment used for adding the mud materials into the fluids.
What is the Function and Principle of the Mud Mixing Unit
The mud mixing unit is always installed at end of the mixing tank. Before starting the drilling, the driller need have sufficient drilling mud to keep a continuous drilling. Thus at the first, the mud mixing unit is used to make the drilling mud by mixing clean water and mud materials. With the drilling going on, once the mud property is not proper for the drilling process, new mud materials like barite or other polymers need to be added into the drilling fluids. The mud mixing unit is sucking the drilling mud from the mixing tank, and then pump the mud together with materials back again into the mixing tank. Normally, the mud agitators would be equipped on the mixing tank for fully blending.
What Components are Included in the Mud Mixing Unit
1. Centrifugal Pump – the inlet of the pump is connected with the mixing tank for sucking the drilling mud from tank. And the outlet is connecting with pipe manifold that will transfer the mud to the hopper unit. As this pump is fixed with the mixing hopper, it is also called mixing pump. This pump is driven by an electric motor via direct shaft connection. By higher efficiency shearing purpose, GN will used belt driving for a shearing pump.
2. Mud Hopper – GN’s mud hopper is Ventri type connected with the pipe manifold via a T pipe. The mud materials will be added into the hopper and then immediately sucked into the drilling fluids as there is a vacuum produced by the high speed flow. For the hopper, GN uses the material of stainless steel for better anti corrosion performance and long life time. Inside the hopper, there is a bad beaker for quickly adding of powders. On the pipe manifold, there is a pressure gauge for the operator to inspect the working pressure of the mixing pump.
3. Control Panel – GN’s mud mixing unit is equipped with explosion proof control panel for application in Zone 1. The operation of the control is easy for only three buttons on the panel. One on, one off and one for emergency stop, accordingly, the signal lights is installed to reflect the operation.
GN’s mud mixing unit could be installed both at the end of the mixing tank or separately mounted on a small skid. This mud mixing unit can also be designed as a dual hopper dual pump type for larger capacity or in case one of them is broken down.