Oilfield Shale Shaker and oilfield mud Screens

Shale shaker is the first stage solids control equipment in Oilfield solids control system, it is the first line of defense for the whole mud recycle system. The first line of defense for a properly designed solids control system is the shale shaker.

Shale shaker site picture

Oilfield Shale Shaker

Oilfield Shale Shaker remove solids from drilling fluids as the mud passes over the surface of a vibrating screen. Particles smaller than the openings in the screen pass through the holes of the screen along with the liquid phase of the mud. Particles too large to pass through the screen are thereby separated from the mud for disposal. Without proper screening of the drilling fluids during this initial removal step, downstream equipment will experience reduced efficiency and effectiveness. The downstream desanders and oilfield desilters with hydrocyclones and/or drilling centrifuges (if employed) will simply be overloaded beyond their design capacity.

Oilfield shale shaker

Shale shaker in Oilfield drilling 

Oilfield mud Screens

Basically, a shale shaker screen acts as a “go/no-go” gauge: either a particle is small enough to pass through the screen or it is not. Screening surfaces used in solids control equipment are generally made of multi-layered woven wire screen cloth and are the “heart and soul” of the shaker. Fundamentally, the quality of a shaker is defined by the quality of screens it utilizes. When selecting a solids control system, it is important that the quality of the screen manufacturing and experience in manufacturing screens is considered.

Shale shaker screen

If the oilfield solids control system is appropriately set up with a scalping system and a fine screen system, the scalping screens must be sized just coarse enough to ensure that drilling fluids does not sheet off the shaker (i.e. whole mud losses). This happens when the scalping screen is too fine to allow the drilling fluids to pass into the solids control system’s dirty tank. Typical scalping screen configurations for HDD applications range from 50 mesh (API 50) to 120 mesh (API 100). Typical fine screen configurations range from 160 (API 120) to 200 mesh (API 170). The API 13C classification is gaining traction in the HDD industry as more contractors focus on the micron cut point they are trying to achieve in their fluids.

Relative to the use of shaker screens, it is the size of the screen openings, not the mesh number that determines the size of the particles separated by the screen. It is because of this fact that HDD system users should compare and specify screens based on their API 13C designation.

About KOSUN

Founded in 1992, Xi’an KOSUN Machinery Co., Ltd. (KOSUN) specializes in drilling, sales, services and manufacturing of solids control, drilling waste management and all other related oilfield equipment. With 20 years of experience, we are totally committed to customer satisfaction.

KOSUN is dedicated to providing a solution to water based, oil based and synthetic based drilling fluids. Our equipments can be used in onshore and offshore drilling as well as in HDD, CBM and shale gas drilling area. KOSUN’s main solids control equipment include shale shakers, decanter centrifuges, mud cleaners, desanders, desilters, centrifugal pumps, vacuum degassers, mud tanks, shaker screens and the complete set of various solids control systems.