Brandt VSM 300 shale shaker

A shale shaker is the first machine on the flow line. Mud drops onto vibrating screens, cuttings stay on top, and fluid falls through to the rest of the pit system. The VSM 300 uses balanced elliptical motion and three decks: a scalping deck, a primary fine-screen deck, and a drying deck. The primary deck clamps screens with a pneumatic bladder.

NOV points this shaker at offshore work and at clay or gumbo, where a scalping deck ahead of the fine screens earns its keep. Deck angles are fixed: 0 degrees at the feed and 7 degrees on the incline. You are not adjusting basket angle on the fly. Weir height is 39 inches, so it needs more elevation than a low-weir land shaker. Two 4 horsepower motors drive it. Weight is about 5,370 pounds.

A King Cobra Venom is a four-panel land shaker with adjustable angle and a higher published G-force. A Mini Cobra is the smaller three-panel land unit with a 24-inch weir. VSM 300 screens are their own API RP 13C frames. Venom screens do not fit this basket. A VSM Multi-Sizer is a related screen family, not this machine.

Ask which screens are included and whether the pneumatic clamp holds air. A shaker without screens, or with the wrong frame, is a motor and a basket. Confirm the motors are the two 4 horsepower units and that the rig can set a 39-inch weir under the flow line.