The mud agitator is very common equipment in the drilling mud recycling system. While it is not the primary solids control equipment to separate the drilling cuttings from the used drilling fluids. Nevertheless, in a complete mud recycling system, the mud agitator is indispensable equipment, especially for large volume requirement drilling mud recycling system.
If you have the chance to a drilling site, you may see several mud tanks beside the drilling rig unit. On the mud tank, there are shale shakers, de-sander & de-silter. Sometimes, you can also see the centrifuge unit. If you step on to the tank top, you may see the mud agitator unit installed with its rotating shaft insert into the drilling fluids inside the mud tank. So, now the question is coming, where should we install the mud agitator unit? And the answer is anywhere you want so long if there is enough space for you to install a mud agitator unit.

It is obvious that the tank compartment for shale shaker and mud cleaner don’t have enough space to install a mud agitator as the tank top is all occupied by the shaker body. Mud agitator is used to keep the mud chemical suspending in the drilling fluids, so the chemicals will not sedimentation down to the tank bottom. The property of the drilling fluids will be kept same for better performance under the drilling well.
The vacuum degasser used in drilling mud system to remove the gas in the drilling fluids to increase the pump working efficiency. GN design vacuum degasser has a long suction pipe to suck the drilling fluids from inside mud tank. It can functions as a agitating unit. So, there is no need for a mud agitator unit in the vacuum degasser compartment.
Suddenly, we found there are several mud tanks with no big equipment on top. However, we found there are many unit mud agitators on it. Yes, this type mud tanks are called mud storage tanks which are used especially for active drilling fluids storage. On the top of the tank, averagely each 10 feet, there will be a mud agitator. For some deep drilling project, it needs many mud storage tanks to keep enough active drilling mud. The request of the mud agitator would be a large quantity.
Here we got the conclusion, the mud agitator is always be installed in the mud system where on top of the mud tank there will be enough space to put it. The most common application is to locate it on the drilling fluids storage tank for prevent mud chemicals sedimentation.