The shale shakers performance can be easily observed, all aspects of its operation are visible. Shale shakers provide the advantage of not degrading soft or friable cuttings. When well operated and maintained,shale shakers can produce a relatively dry cuttings discharge.
In unweighted muds, the shale shaker’s main role is to remove as much solids as possible and reduce the solids loading to the downstream hydrocyclones and centrifuges to improve their efficiency. In muds containing solid weighting agents such as barite, the shale shaker is the primary solids removal device. It is usually relied upon to remove all drilled cuttings coarser than the weighting material. Downstream equipment will often remove too much valuable weighting material.Enough shakers should be installed to process the entire circulating rate with the goal of removing as many drilled cuttings as economically feasible. Given the importance of the shale shaker, the most efficient
shakers and screens should be selected to achieve optimum economic performance of the solids control system.
Shaker performance is a function of:
- Vibration pattern
- Vibration dynamics
- Deck size and configuration
- Shaker screen characteristics
- Mud rheology (plastic viscosity)
- Solids loading rate (penetration rate, hole diameter)
The impact of each is discussed in detail in this chapter. Guidelines for shaker and screen selection are also provided.Simply stated, a shale shaker works by channelling mud and solids onto vibrating screens. The mud and fine solids pass through the screens and return to the active system. Solids coarser than the screen openings are conveyed off the screen by the vibratory motion of the shaker. The shaker is the only solids removal device that makes a separation based on physical particle size. Hydrocyclones and centrifuges separate solids based on differences in their relative mass.
Read more for GN Shale Shakers
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You will read more info. for the shale shaker screens available manufactured by GN Solids Control.