Irrigation pump
A mud pump is a powerful multi- piston pump (up to 2300 kW) that is used on a drilling rig . It is used to pump the drilling fluid down through the drill string under high pressure of up to 500 bar and up again through the annulus. With an exchangeable piston / cylinder liner pairing and changing the speed of the drive, the pump can be adapted to the various pressure and volume flow requirements of a deep borehole . In the past, double-acting duplex pumps with 2 pistons were mainly used on drilling rigs; over time, these were replaced by single-acting triplex pumps with 3 pistons and are now only rarely used.
construction
An irrigation pump consists of two main assemblies: the water section and the drive unit.
The water part with its valves , pistons and cylinder liners enables the actual pumping process. These parts are exposed to heavy wear from the abrasive drilling fluid. The pumps are designed in such a way that these wearing parts can easily be changed. In order to reduce pulsations in the drilling fluid, a pulsation damper is attached to the suction and pressure side of the pump .
The drive unit converts the rotating movement of the drive into the oscillating movement of the pistons. For this, a Phillips - crank mechanism used. Most mud pumps are designed so that a large gear is mounted on the crankshaft in the pump . The external motor drives an internal reduction gear via a belt or chain drive, which in turn drives the gearwheel via a pinion shaft.
Recent developments
Newer flushing pump developments have more pistons, quintuplex or hexaplex pumps (5 or 6) or replace the combination of internal gear and belt drive with a single gear with directly driven pumps.
literature
- Collier, Samuel L .: Mud Pump Handbook . 1983; ISBN 0-87201-568-8 .