How to Properly Select and Use a Shale Shaker Screen

Dec. 14, 2021

The shale shaker screen is one of the most important but most overlooked pieces of equipment on a drilling rig. The shaker screen is your first line of defense against drill cuttings and major solids control equipment.

Solids control offers a wide range of benefits, including but not limited to:

✴ Increased drilling

✴ Reduced mud costs

✴ Reduced disposal costs

✴ Increased bit life

Shaker Screens are a key factor in determining the success of mud and chip control. It is important to select the correct vibrating screen for your formation's drill cuttings type and mud characteristics.

Selecting a shaker screen

On surface holes, drilled solids are usually large and can be easily removed using a coarse mesh shaker, usually 50 84 or 110 mesh is sufficient. However, intermediate and main hole drill chips are usually much finer. Therefore it requires a finer mesh. For very fine sand, I recommend using at least one hundred and ten or more. The choice of screen will also depend on the ROP (drilling speed) and how the hole will be cleaned, and if you join, you may have to reuse other products of the system.

Proper use of screens

Maintaining the shaker screen is as important as the screen selection itself. In normal drilling, it is important to make sure that fluid flows through the screen tube at about 25% to 50% of the distance from the farthest outgoing line. Try to make the shaker as horizontal as possible. This will result in a more consistent position across the screen and usually means that the correct size grid is selected. Jacking up or raising the shaker plate will increase the amount of time the solids spend closer to the flow line on the shaker screen. This will reduce the life of the vibrating screen.

Be careful not to puncture the mesh when cleaning the screen, as this will reduce the effectiveness of the screen. Shaker screens without a top grid are also less effective and should be replaced with vibrating screens with holes in them. There is no protection for diamonds. Why should you let things run their course? This will have a huge impact on your drilling fluid.

Replacing screens

Replacing a shaker screen is much cheaper than replacing the mud system or rebuilding the mud pump and directional tool. Enough to mention the added cost in terms of well completion. It is also important to ensure that the shaker, rubber shaker bypass and other components are always in good working order. If the bypass is opened while drilling, all the shale will enter the mud tank below the shaker with zero efficiency.

The shale always manages to end up in the screen box of the feed pump, which reduces the volume handled by the centrifuge. The screen box is a good indicator that the more efficiently the shaker screen screens, the more successful the centrifuge will be.