Ironstone Drilling Supply
Ironstone Drilling Supply: “Supplier-agnostic sourcing platform for drilling consumables — drilling-fluid additives, PDC bits, and shaker screens — delivered CFR worldwide.”
What does a thinner do, and when do I need one?
“As a water-based mud drills, it picks up clay solids. Clay particles carry electrical charges on their edges and faces that attract each other, so the particles link into a loose network — the mud "flocculates" and its viscosity and gel strength climb.”
View in the company profileWhich thinner for high-temperature wells?
“Lignosulfonate is the most common thinner for general deflocculation in water-based mud, though its performance drops at the highest temperatures. Lignite (leonardite) products give filtration control and thinning with better temperature stability, and are often run together with lignosulfonate.”
View in the company profileHow much thinner do I add?
“Thinners are added by pilot testing, not by a fixed dose. You treat a measured sample of the mud with increasing amounts of the thinner, measure viscosity and gel strength after each step, and scale the amount that works to the full system volume.”
View in the company profile