SWACO Fluid Processing System (FPS)

Forty years ago, back when draftsmen put pencil to paper rather than stylus to pad, before CAD existed, I was an engineer for working for a company that produced oilfield drilling equipment. I was astonished at my good fortune when I was assigned the task of building a model of our new drilling fluid processing system in order to prove out the blueprints. Once the proof model was done, I was to build models of all the equipment that was used on the FPS platform, and assemble everything into a display model for the 1980 Offshore Technology Conference in Houston. I spent over 600 hours on the model. The finished model measures 42" x 12" x 12". 

The drilling mud progressed from left to right in this photo, moving from coarse to fine vibrating screens to separate large cuttings, then through a series of hydrocyclones to separate finer cuttings, on to a series of centrifuges to remove the finest particles, and finally through a degasser to remove any entrained gasses from the mud. Sorry for the funky coloring-- these are scans of 40-year-old photos. 

Feed side of the vibrating screens, and below, the pumps and piping that move the mud through the system. 

Large hydrocyclones. Mud enters through the white pipe, cleaned mud exits through the ell on the left, cuttings drop from the nozzle on the right onto the vibrating screen below, where any mud clinging to the cuttings is removed and returned to the system. 

Small hydrocyclones. 

Small hydrocyclones. 

Centriguges. 

Degasser.