Page 24 - Shale Shakers Drilling Fluid Systems

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE 7
1932 Baroid Sales Company—The Baroid "Lemco
mud screen" was one of the first screens devel-
oped in the late 1920s, with screen cloth ap-
proximately 30 mesh and an extremely high
angle with an unbalanced elliptical motion.
1934 Shaffer Tool Works—The "Shaffer vibrat-
ing mud screen" is another early machine us-
ing somewhat larger dimensions—48" x 55"—
while still maintaining a 4 x 5 relationship and
using a high angle with elliptical motion.
1935 Allis-Chalmers Mfg. Co.—This early de-
vice, as with all of these units was used in the
mining industry as a classifier. As it was built
to be stationary, it was rather bulky and had to
be "skidded" and then reduced in weight for
installation on a drilling rig and to make it eas- 1940 Chain Belt Company of Milwaukee—Rex
ily transportable.
1936 Link-Belt Company—Probably the best
known of the early shale shakers, this unit was
adapted from the mining industry to handle
rotary drilling applications in drilling mud, as
well as the first designed for installation on a
drilling rig.
1937 Gulf Engineers, Inc.—The "Keil vibrating
screen" was another adaptation designed for
the oil industry. This unit, again, used elliptical
motion and was "skidded" for moving.
1938 The Jeffery Manufacturing Co.—The Jeffery
"Blue Streak Shale Shaker," primarily used in
the midwest, was the first to advertise using the
words "si.ale shaker."
1938 Lucey Export Corporation—The "Hudson-
Boucher automatic shale separator" was the
first barrel-type separator to be offered that be-
came well known along with the "Linda K" and
"Thompson." These units were commonly used
with a very low substructure because they could
be set on the ground and the drilling fluid flowed
through them without requiring a great deal of
floor height.
1938 Vernon Tool Company, Ltd.—With the
"McNeely," designs began to resemble the oil-
field units of today. It was well skidded, well
supported, and boasted a real vibrator mounted
centrally to the deck.
1939 International Nickel Co., Inc.—Interna-
tional Nickel introduced stainless screens—in this
case, a monel screen—for use in high H 2S, salt
water, and sour crude. Many of the early shale
shaker screens were not stainless, which did
not become standard until the late 1930s.
1939 Link-Belt Company—When examining this
unit, it is interesting to see how a standard
piece of equipment used in the mining industry
was modified for use in the drilling industry and
how the variations in the link belt unit evolved
over time.
1939 W-K-M Company, Inc.—The W-K-M mud
screen was a short-lived adaptation of the
barrel-type mud separator. It had a screen ex-
terior with a conveyor that carried the solids
through the screen, discharging liquid back into
earthen pits.
mud conditioners were another adaptation from
the mining industry that were offered in com-
petition with the Link Belt.
1940 Gulf Engineers, Inc.—The "Jitterbug" unit
was introduced and was a name that stuck with
shale shakers for many years. This unit empha-
sizes how much shale shakers changed in a
relatively short period of time.
1940 Hutchinson Engineering Works—Hutchin-
son Engineering became the first to mass pro-
duce shakers specifically designed for drilling
fluid use. Their "Rumba" became the standard
for the oil industry until the mid-1980s.
1943-1944 Hutchinson Engineering Works—
Although many changes were being made in the
style of shakers, they continued to use the same
elliptical motion and required gravity to remove
cuttings from the screens.
1943-1944 Overstrom & Sons—The first
Overstrom unit used a roll of wire mounted on
the side of the shaker with two long clamps.
The screen was pulled tight across the shaker
and clamped down. When a tear occurred in the
screen, a knife was used to cut the screen and
the damaged portion was discarded. A new
portion of screen was unrolled, pulled over the
shaker frame, and clamped down. There were
no hook strips or method of tightening the screen
down to the shaker other than the clamps on
either side of the frame.
1946-1947 Link-Belt Company—It is interest-
ing to examine the suspension of the link belt
in operation. Resembling a truck suspension, it
worked quite well in its day and time.