Patent ID: 6905452

Claim:
In a drilling mud reclamation system having a tank which receives a slurry of drilling mud and trailings which have been produced during the process of drilling a hole in the earth and having a centrifuge for separating the trailings from the slurry, said centrifuge having a bowl driven by a bowl motor and a screw conveyor in said bowl driven by a screw conveyor motor, and a conduit between said bowl and said tank from receiving said slurry minus the trailings which were centrifuged therefrom and a pump for pumping said slurry to said centrifuge, the improvement of a general purpose computer specially programmed to drive said bowl motor at a first substantially constant speed, to drive said screw conveyor motor at a second substantially constant speed, to compare respective operating torques of said bowl motor and said screw conveyor motor, at said first and second substantially constant speeds, respectively, to a torque set point, and to cause said pump to adjust its flow to said centrifuge in response to a first torque comprising said respective operating torque for whichever of said screw conveyor motor or bowl motor is operating closest to its respective rated torque, wherein adjusting said flow comprises decreasing said flow in response to said first torque being greater than said set point and increasing said flow in response to said first torque being less than said set point.