Screen performance on whole shaker while drilling

Screen performance is one issue verify or classify shaker screen quality. How to measure it?

Screen performance

Shale shaker screen performance is measured by the amount of solids that pass through them (conveyance) and the specific sized materials they are separating (cut point). The cut point or separation point is measured in microns.

In order to illustrate just how small the screen openings are, please consider these issues, knowing that 26000microns equals one inch. Actually, a human hair is approximately 90 microns in diameter. Talcum power is roughly 30 micron in diameter; thus, performance of solids control equipment is measure by its ability to remove particles in these size ranges

Screen performance

However, on each shaker, the shaker screen performance may slightly different. No matter how, shaker screens need to fit well and seal totally on the shaker bed.

Realize followings during operation

Most people do not realize how much material the shakers actually process. If we take a 12 1/4″ hole being drilled to a depth of 8500ft, the screens have conveyed 382.56tons of drilled materials. This doesn’t include the constant weight of fluid used to remove cuttings from the well bore

Most of this material is very abrasive on the top layer of wire cloth. If you had ever tried to tear a piece of 210 mesh wire cloth, you will understand how fragile it really is. So when you hear a consultant ask ” Why did my screens fail in 3 days? ” remember the figures we ever listed before you decide on premature failure of a screen

Shale shaker screen weight and performance

Some clients or users ask, why your replacement screen are heavier than OEM ones? Yes, some of our screen panels will be heavier than original ones, but this will not affect your operation and screen performance actually.

AIPU Shaker screens

Every manufacturer of shaker screen builds their screens in a different manner. Some screens are lighter than others, and some screens are heavier than others. Some are made of a lightweight composite material, while some are made from heavy steel tubings.

Please find below example:

If a shale shaker is under normal operating conditions, the shaker bed will be flooded with at least 50 gallons of drilling fluid. Some shakers will run 84 gallons of fluid. At 10 ppg this equals 840 pounds displaced over the 4 screens, an average of 210 pounds of fluid per screen.

Now, do you really think 8-10 pounds in screen weight will mater? If so, how can the shaker withstand 17ppg mud weight with an average of 357 pounds of drilling fluid per screen? As you can see the weight between OEM screens and replacement screens really making no sense on shaker in field application.

Please contact us freely for more shaker screen performance information