Pumps and Systems Magazine

The Magazine For Pump Users Worldwide February 2010
pump-zone.com
pump-zone.com
12 Suction Specic
Speed Calculator
16 Acceleration Head
58 Chemical Market
Update
28 Pump System
Optimization
12 Suction Specic
Speed Calculator
58 Chemical Market
Update
28 Pump System
Optimization
2009 R&D 100
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HydroAire, Inc.
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HydroTex Deer Park, Inc.
713-937-9141
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HydroTex Dynamics, Inc.
713-937-9001
Los Angeles
Evans Hydro, Inc.
310-608-5801
Philadelphia
Hydro East, Inc.
800-214-2740
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HydroAire, Inc.
312-738-3000
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03-5165-0390
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2 FEBRUARY 2010 www.pump-zone.com PUMPS & SYSTEMS
Letter from the Editor
PUMPS & SYSTEMS (ISSN# 1065-108X) is published monthly by Pumps & Systems, a member of the Cahaba Media Group, 1900 28th Avenue So., Suite 110, Birmingham, AL 35209. Periodicals
postage paid at Birmingham, AL, and additional mailing ofces. Subscriptions: Free of charge to qualied industrial pump users. Publisher reserves the right to determine qualications. Annual sub-
scriptions: US and possessions $48, all other countries $125 US funds (via air mail). Single copies: US and possessions $5, all other countries $15 US funds (via air mail). Call (630) 482-3050 inside or
outside the U.S. POSTMASTER: send change of address to Pumps & Systems, PO BOX 338, Batavia, IL 60510-0338. 2009 Cahaba Media Group, Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced
without the written consent of the publisher. The publisher does not warrant, either expressly or by implication, the factual accuracy of any advertisements, articles or descriptions herein, nor does
the publisher warrant the validity of any views or opinions offered by the authors of said articles or descriptions. The opinions expressed are those of the individual authors, and do not necessarily
represent the opinions of Cahaba Media Group. Cahaba Media Group makes no representation or warranties regarding the accuracy or appropriateness of the advice or any advertisements contained
in this magazine. SUBMISSIONS: We welcome submissions. Unless otherwise negotiated in writing by the editors, by sending us your submission, you grant Cahaba Media Group, Inc. permission
by an irrevocable license to edit, reproduce, distribute, publish and adapt your submission in any medium on multiple occasions. You are free to publish your submission yourself or to allow others to
republish your submission. Submissions will not be returned.
is a member of the following organizations:
C
huck Stolberg was one of
the rst people I met in the
pump industry. We immedi-
ately connected. We were both former
sportswriters who made the transi-
tion from newspapers to the world of
pumps. The pump industry can be a
sport, he told me when I joined him
and his wife, Carol, for a lovely dinner
in St. Louis in the spring of 2008. The good
news . . . we are all on the same team.
It is with great sadness that the entire Pumps
& Systems family says goodbye to Stolberg, long-
time executive director of the Submersible
Wastewater Pump Association (SWPA) and a
loyal member of the P&S Editorial Advisory
Board. He was an engaging man with a passion-
ate dedication to work and family. It was my
pleasure to know him.
He was 61.
Stolberg led the development of SWPA
engineering guides such as The Submersible Pump
Handbook and The Submersible Grinder Pump
Handbook, as well as educational PowerPoint-
based programs focused on promotion of sub-
mersible pump technology.
He has been the backbone of the
Association for decades, says Bob Domkowski,
business development manager for ITT Water
& Wastewater and a SWPA Executive Board
Member. Through his tireless efforts,
the Association membership grew,
serving the needs of the member sub-
mersible pump manufacturers. Under
his leadership, membership statistical
reporting programs were expanded
and the annual Submersible Pump
Industry Outlook and SWPA college
scholarship programs were initiated.
Stolberg was involved in SWPA for about
25 years and served as executive director most
of that time.
He has always been the driving force
behind the organization, and has used his exten-
sive industry knowledge and contacts to develop
and improve the SWPA organization to the
point it is today, says Chris Caldwell, direc-
tor of engineering for ABS USA and president
of SWPA. Chuck was a very kind and gentle
man, with a friendly easygoing nature. He cared
deeply about the SWPA organization and its
members. I will miss his knowledge and leader-
ship, but the organization will continue, and we
are determined to recover from this loss.
Stolberg is survived by his wife, three chil-
dren and seven grandchildren.
PUBLISHER
Walter B. Evans, Jr.
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
VP-SALES
George Lake
glake@pump-zone.com
205-345-0477
VP-EDITORIAL
Tambra McKerley
EDITOR
Michelle Segrest
msegrest@pump-zone.com
205-314-8279
MANAGING EDITOR
Alexandra Ferretti
aferretti@pump-zone.com
205-314-8269
MANAGING EDITOR
ELECTRONIC MEDIA
Julie Smith
jsmith@cahabamedia.com
205-314-8265
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Joe Evans, PhD
Terry Henshaw, PE
Laurel Donoho
Dr. Lev Nelik, PE, APICS
INTERN
Monique Jones
SENIOR ART DIRECTOR
Greg Ragsdale
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Lisa Freeman
lfreeman@pump-zone.com
205-212-9402
CIRCULATION
Tom Cory
TomCory@cirtecinc.com
630-482-3050
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES
Charli K. Matthews
cmatthews@pump-zone.com
205-345-2992
Derrell Moody
dmoody@pump-zone.com
205-345-0784
Mary-Kathryn Baker
mkbaker@pump-zone.com
205-345-6036
Mark Goins
mgoins@pump-zone.com
205-345-6414
A Publication of
P.O. Box 530067
Birmingham, AL 35253
Editorial & Production Ofces
1900 28th Avenue South, Suite 110
Birmingham, AL 35209
Phone: 205-212-9402
Advertising Sales Ofces
2126 McFarland Blvd. East. Suite A
Tuscaloosa, AL 35404
Phone: 205-345-0477 or 205-345-0784

Editorial Advisory Board
William V. Adams, Director, New Business
Development/Corp. Mktg., Flowserve
Corporation
Thomas L. Angle, PE, Vice President, Product
Engineering, Weir Specialty Pumps
Robert K. Asdal, Executive Director, Hydraulic
Institute
Bryan S. Barrington, Machinery Engineer, Lyondell
Chemical Co.
Kerry Baskins, Vice President, Grundfos Pumps
Corporation
R. Thomas Brown III, President, Advanced Sealing
International (ASI)
John Carter, President, Warren Rupp, Inc.
David A. Doty, North American Sales Manager,
Moyno Industrial Pumps
Ralph P. Gabriel, Director of Product Development,
John Crane
William E. Neis, PE, President, NorthEast Industrial
Sales
Dr. Lev Nelik, PE, Apics, President, Pumping
Machinery, LLC
David C. Orlowski, President & CEO, Inpro/Seal
Company
Henry Peck, President, Geiger Pumps & Equipment/
Smith-Koch, Inc.
Mike Pemberton, Manager, ITT Performance
Services
Earl Rogalski, Sr. Product Manager, KLOZURE
,
Garlock Sealing Technologies
Charles G. Stolberg, Executive Director, Submersible
Wastewater Pump Association (SWPA)
Charles G. Stolberg
THE AFTERMARKET
Q
Babbitt Bearing Repair for
a Power Plant
Pat Trentler and Jim Jenkins, Quadna, Inc.
How skilled aftermarket Babbitt bearing experts helped a
power plant return to service.
Q
Cost Reductions Through Life Cycle Improvements
George Harris, Hydro, Inc. and Ken Babusiak, HydroAire, Inc.
A case study on the methods used to improve the reliability and extend the
life of descaling pumps in a steel mill.
PUMP SYSTEM OPTIMIZATION &
ENERGY CONSERVATION
Q
Meeting Increased Demand for
Efcient Pump Designs
Dr. David Japikse, Concepts NREC
A look at the possibilities and tools available to improve pump designs.
RENTAL PUMPS, TOOLS & EQUIPMENT
Q
When It Makes More Sense to
Rent Pumps
Heather Schlichting, RSC Equipment Rental
Renting the right pump for a project may improve a companys
bottom line.
Q
Maximizing Your Rental Experience
Kirsten Petersen Stroud and Robert Thompson, Thompson
Pump & Manufacturing Co., Inc.
Tips for ensuring a positive pump rental experience.
PRACTICE & OPERATIONS
Q
Water Reuse and Energy Generation in Gaojing
Power Plant
Flora Tong, Dow Water & Process Solutions, Asia Pacic
How membrane technology was used to reuse blowdown from cooling
towers in a power plant.
MARKET UPDATE
Q
Chemical Market Update
Walter Bonnett, PSG
While the chemical industry had a trying 2009, advances in pump
technology signal a bright future.
Table of Contents
20
28
56
58
52
50
23
DEPARTMENTS
Readers Respond. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
P&S News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Pump Ed 101. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Joe Evans, Ph.D.
Suction Calculators
Pumping Prescriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Dr. Lev Nelik, P.E., APICS
Retrotting Lift Stations with Submersible Motors
Understanding NPSH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Terry Henshaw, P.E.
Acceleration Head
Maintenance Minders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Dennis Onken, LUDECA, Inc.
Are Your Vertical Pumps Throwing Money Down the Drain?
Efciency Matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Tom ODonnell
Metering Expectations
FSA Sealing Sense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
How Can Packing Solve My Sealing Problem?
HI Pump FAQs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Hot oil pumps; reciprocating power pumps; rotary pumps
Product Pipeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Bulletin Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Pump Users Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
February 2010
Volume 18 Number 2
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pump-zone.com
pump-zone.com
12 Suction Specic
Speed Calculator
58 Chemical Market
Update
28 Pump System
Optimization
12 Suction Specic
Speed Calculator
58 Chemical Market
Update
28 Pump System
Optimization
20
Lubricate
With FAG Intrinsically Safe
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Seal
With Garlock Split Guardian
Bronze Bearing Isolators.
Repair
With MRC
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Maximize Efciency
With Baldor/Reliance VS1PF
Variable Frequency Drives.
Rebuild
With Loctite
Nordbak

Wear Resistant Coatings.
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Readers Respond
November Cover
I just received my November
issue of Pumps & Systems Magazine
and wanted to let you know that
it is a great resource. But I had one
questionthe cover shows a line
of pumps with what appears to be
a new installation as the rst pump
with several old pumps behind it.
The eccentric reducer on the suction
piping is installed with the at side
down
(FSD). Best practice for most pumps that I am involved with
is to install an eccentric reducer with at side up (FSU). All
the older pumps behind this new installation appear to have
their reducer with FSD. Is there something specic about this
application where a designer would specify the reducers FSD or
is this a mistake on the installers part?
Josef Hoffman
Jimmy Gross of Dickow replies:
Mr. Hoffman is quite observant. Normally the reducers
would be installed in the opposite position. Our magnetically
coupled side channel pump (type HZM) is self-priming and
is suitable for gas applications, so in this instance the reducer
orientation is not an issue.
November Pump FAQs
In the rst question of the November 2009 Hydraulic
Institute Pump FAQs, the paragraph beginning with For bal-
ancing slurry pump should have read: For balance of slurry
pump type impellers, refer to the latest edition of ANSI/HI 12.1-
12.6 Rotodynamic (Centrifugal) Slurry Pumps for Nomenclature,
Denitions, Applications and Operation.
Pump Challenge #5
Response
In response to your Pump
Challenge #5, Correctly Sizing
Pipe, (Pumping Prescriptions,
November 2009), I am providing
the following response.
Regarding, Why and how do
pump manufacturers select suction
and discharge ange dimensions for a
particular ow rating?, I am not a
pump manufacturer, nor do I work for one, but I have heard
of some pipeline industry rules of thumb, which seem to work
well. One such rule of thumb is a uid velocity limit of 10 ft/
sec within the pump suction inlet when the pump is operating
at its BEP. Based on this limit, a pump rated at a ow rate of
100 gpm would need to have an inlet ange size of 2 in to meet
the 10 ft/sec velocity criteria. If the pump inlet ange was 1.5
in size, the corresponding velocity would be about 18 ft/sec,
which is too high by this sizing criteria. Although a 3 in suction
inlet would also meet this velocity limit, the pump inlet would
be oversized and the pump may tend to run at a lower efciency
or have other operational issues.
As for the discharge ange size, the only rule of thumb of
which I am aware pertains to using a discharge ange size that
is one standard pipe size smaller than the suction ange. In the
case of a 2 in suction ange, the next smaller standard pipe size
of 1.5 in would apply for the discharge ange. Thus, the appro-
priate ANSI dimensions would be 1.5 x 2-6 for a pump with
rated ow of 100 gpm.
Regarding, Determine if you could hook up a supply
tank to the pump suction ange using 1.5 in pipe to handle
100 gpm, based on the answer to the previous question, the
appropriate pump suction pipe size would be a minimum of
2 in size to match the pump suction ange. If we assume the
use of nominal 2 in steel pipe size, 2.375 in OD, 0.154 in WT,
2.067 in ID for the pump suction line, and if the pumped uid
is water, then the frictional pressure drop would be approxi-
mately 7.5 psi per 100 ft length of 2 in line.
The frictional pressure drop would be approximately 38.8
psi per 100 ft of length if the suction pipe was 1.5 in XS steel
pipe. Depending on the NPSH required by the pump, the
static suction head (or lift), uid vapor pressure and distance
between the supply tank and the pump, one can determine if
the 7.5 psi per 100 ft length for 2 in pipe size is acceptable to
meet the NPSH required at 100 gpm. If NPSHA is lower than
NPSHR, then the pump suction line size should be increased
to produce lower friction losses at 100 gpm, unless some other
system changes can be made to increase NPSHA.
Regarding, Is a 1 in discharge ange sized well for this
pump owing at 100 gpm?, the direct answer would be no.
Based on the previous answers, a 1.5 in discharge ange would
be appropriate for this pump.
However, the size of the downstream discharge piping
should be determined so that the resulting system resistance
curve will intersect the pump head curve at 100 gpm. In the
pump curve provided in Pump Challenge #2, the pump head
rise at 100 gpm was approximately 120 ft for a 6 in impeller.
The discharge pipe size should be selected so that the resulting
frictional pressure drop at 100 gpm plus the static elevation
change is approximately 120 ft.
This Pump Challenge seemed to be quite thought-
provoking. Whether my answer is good, bad or ugly, I certainly
enjoyed the challenge.
Thomas J. Hill, P.E., Lead Pipeline Consultant
GL Industrial Services, Houston, TX
Lev Nelik responds:
A very good answer, Tom! Your second part goes even
beyond my explanation (see solution published in the
December issue, which essentially reects what you said). Your
explanation of the effect of friction on losses and suction side
PUMPS & SYSTEMS www.pump-zone.com FEBRUARY 2010 7
NPSH concerns when piping is too tight, as well as added
power required to drive the motor when discharge pipes are too
tight, is excellent.
Pump Challenge #5
Dr. Nelik, my answer to Pump Challenge #5 is below:
1. Maximum suction pipe velocity is limited to 8 ft/s; on the
discharge, it is 15 ft/s as per the Hydraulic Institute.
2. Calculations are made such that the velocities remain in this
range. However, certain other factors also affect the pipe size
selection:
a. A larger diameter pipe selected will be more costly to pur-
chase, but the frictional head drop in such a pipe will be
less. For this reason, a pump with low head can be used
and demands a smaller motor.
b. Since the frictional losses are less, the energy consump-
tion will be less.
c. A larger diameter pipe, which is stiffer than a smaller
diameter one, requires less support and installation cost.
d. Due consideration should be given to the fact that the
stress at the pump anges will be higher for a large diam-
eter pipe.
There are advantages and disadvantages associated with
either option. A breakeven point exists between the two options
as the system conguration, site, application and other con-
straints. Pipe sizes are selected based on limiting velocities rst
and then on the above four criteria.
Juned Ansari, Energy Auditor
NBI Water, Aurangabad
Expansion Joint
Performance
I read with interest the article
titled, How do expansion joints
improve performance of mechani-
cal seals? (Sealing Sense, September
2009). The authors Marty Rogin
and Jim Richter did a great job
explaining how pump seal perfor-
mance can be improved through the
use of expansion joints. I think it is
important, however, to mention some
particulars on these joints. My company had a failure of a bel-
lows-style expansion joint in a process line on the discharge
side of a pump. This failure was attributed to misapplication:
ow through the joint exceeded the manufacturers maximum
recommended velocity. Because the joint was on the discharge
side of the pump (highest pressure point), its failure resulted in
a signicant amount of discharge. Although this spill did not
result in a catastrophic incident, it had the potential.
It is vitally important that the expansion joint
manufacturers literature be consulted before specifying and
installing a joint. Joints have limits on pressure and tempera-
ture that must be matched to process conditions. Control rods,
shields and internal sleeves are available that help ensure long
term, reliable performance. Bolt torque values and tolerances
for angular, axial and parallel offsets are specied and must be
met during installation. Joints need to be inspected periodically
to ensure these tolerances continue to be met, there are no signs
of cracks or leaks, etc. Additional guidance is available in the
manufacturers literature.
Expansion joints seem to be relatively simple devices on
the surface, but as our company found out no good deed goes
unpunished when they are not carefully applied!
Peter Montagna, Engineering Manager
King Industries, Inc.
Elastomeric Expansion Joints
This is in response to the FSAs article on elastomeric
expansion joints. In my 10 years experience with machinery and
rotating equipment, the majority of the pump and seal failures
I have seen are not due to piping strain. I agree that elastomeric
expansion joints will reduce the pipe strain on a pump, but
they are not a substitute for poor piping design. In cases where
you are pumping highly hazardous chemical (such as fuming
sulfuric acid or hazardous waste) the risk associated with failure
of the expansion joint prohibits their use. It is more reasonable
in my opinion, to ensure that piping is designed, fabricated and
installed such that the forces on the pump nozzles are within the
manufacturers limits.
Piping stress analysis programs are routinely used to ensure
that loads on the piping are within ASME limits. It is incum-
bent on the project team and the equipment owners to ensure
that the analysis extends to the pump nozzles for cold, hot and
transient cases. It is not sufcient for piping designers, fabri-
cators and installers to arbitrarily design a piping system and
install an elastomeric expansion joint to compensate for poor
engineering.
E. Peter Morenc, P.E.
Reliability Engineer, Rhodia, Baton Rouge
P&S
Coming in April 2010!
Are you an upstream oil and gas professional? This Spring, Pumps &
Systems is proud to introduce Upstream Pumping Solutions, a new
publication specically targeted to the upstream pumping market.
Maintenance and troubleshooting tips, technical primers and case
studies make Upstream Pumping Solutions an indispensible guide for
approaching pumping problems in the eld.
To sign up for a FREE copy,
go to www.pump-zone.com/upstream-pumping-solutions.html.
P&S News
PEOPLE
PUMP SOLUTIONS GROUP (REDLANDS,
CA) announces that Dover Fluid Manage-
ment, a segment within Dover Corpora-
tion, has named Dean E. Douglas as presi-
dent of Pump Solutions Group (PSG).
In this position, Douglas will report to
Soma Somasundaram, executive vice presi-
dent of Dover Fluid Management.
PSG is a conglomeration of six pump manufactur-
ers and technologies, including Blackmer
(Grand Rapids,
MI); Wilden
(Grand Terrace, CA); Neptune (Lansdale,

PA); Griswold (Grand Terrace, CA); Mouvex
(Auxerre,
France); and Almatec
(Kamp-Linfort, Germany).
www.pumpsg.com
ABB (ZURICH, SWITZERLAND) names
Daniel Huber as business unit manager for
the companys Control Systems business
within the Process Automation Division.
Huber will be responsible for the global
product business of ABBs portfolio of
control systems.
ABB produces power and automation
technologies. www.abb.com
GRUNDFOS PUMPS CORP (OLATHE, KS) names Andrew
Warrington as the new president of Peerless Pump Company
and its subsidiaries.
Grundfos produces pumps and pumping systems for
the residential, commercial-building, process-industry mar-
kets and water-supply and water-treatment industries.
www.grundfos.com
COMMTEST (KNOXVILLE,
TN) appoints Tim
Whitacre as a corporate
solutions specialist, and
Chris Keniston and Shane
Smith as customer success
engineers.
Commtest produces
vibration analysis and monitoring equipment.
www.commtest.com
FLUID SEALING ASSOCIATION (WAYNE, PA) appoints
Edward Marchese as vice president of its Board of Directors.
Marchese is president of Proco Products, Inc. (Stockton,
Calif.). Marchese also serves as chairman of the By-Laws
Committee and as a member of the Executive, Nominating,
Publicity and Strategic Planning Committees. FSA also
appoints Greg Raty to its Board of Directors. Raty is
vice president of Slade, Inc. (Statesville, N.C.). Raty also
serves as chairman of the Compression Packing Division
and as a member of the Strategic Planning and Publicity
Committees.
FSA is an international trade association representing
the uid sealing market. www.uidsealing.com
THOMPSON PUMP & MANUFACTURING
(PORT ORANGE, FL) celebrates the
25th employment anniversary of Dale
Conway, vice president of engineering.
Conway currently oversees all engineering
departments and technical aspects of the
pump business including manufacturing
engineering, quality assurance and research
and development.
Thompson also ofcially launches a new and improved
website with enhanced navigation and expanded informa-
tion on products, services and support.
Thompson provides pumps, pumping equipment and
engineering expertise. www.ThompsonPump.com
LOCKWOOD, ANDREWS & NEWNAM,
INC. (HOUSTON, TX) names Kevin
Calderwood, P.E. as the director of
engineering and senior project manager of
the rms Sacramento ofce. Calderwood
will lead the rms business development as
well as project execution efforts for clients
throughout California.
LAN also announces that the Houston-
Galveston Area Council (H-GAC), a region-wide voluntary
association of local governments in the 13-county Gulf Coast
Planning region of Texas, has contracted it as one of the pre-
qualied rms of its PlanSource program.
LAN is a full-service consulting rm offering planning,
engineering and program management services.
www.lan-inc.com
BROOKS INSTRUMENT (HATFIELD, PA)
names Mike Bayda as global level product
manager. Bayda will lead efforts to enhance
global market penetration of Brooks level
measurement products. He will report to
Vice President Tim Scott.
Brooks produces advanced ow
measurement, control and level solutions.
www.BrooksInstrument.com
GODWIN PUMPS (BRIDGPORT, NJ)
appoints John Hughes, safety specialist,
to the Godwin Environmental Safety &
Health (ESH) team located at its Bridge-
port (NJ) world headquarters. Hughes
will regularly visit each of the companys
26 branch locations to help managers and
employees observe and address known and
Tim Whitacre Shane Smith
Dean E. Douglas
Daniel Huber
Kevin
Calderwood
Dale Conway
Mike Bayda
John Hughes
potential workplace hazards. He will assist in the development
of safer work habits to promote company-wide improvements
in overall safety.
Godwin maintains rental pumps and related equipment
for use in dewatering, drinking water supply and wastewater
bypasses. www.godwinpumps.com
QUADNA, INC.
(PHOENIX, AZ) names
Julie Byers as assistant
controller, responsible
for all general account-
ing activities.
Quadna engineers,
fabricates and services
mechanical systems. www.quadna.com
DUPERON CORP (SAG-
INAW, MI) announces
that Terry L. Duperon,
the founder of the Dup-
eron Corporation and
former President/CEO,
is now chairman of the
board. Tammy L. (Dup-
eron) Bernier, formerly
vice president, COO has
become President/CEO.
Duperon produces
preliminary liquids/
solids separation tech-
nologies and screening
technologies. www.duperon.com
KOCH MEMBRANE
SYSTEMS
(WILMINGTON, MA)
names Dr. Hamid R.
Rabie as senior vice
president of technology.
Dr. Rabie will report
directly to KMS
President, David H.
Koch, and will manage all research
and development activities within the
company.
KMS also received NSF
International certication for its new
reverse osmosis and nanoltration ele-
ment construction operation located in
Wilmington, Mass.
KMS produces membrane ltra-
tion technology and engineering sup-
port. www.kochmembrane.com
AROUND THE INDUSTRY
DOW CORNING (MIDLAND, MI) has acquired two chemical
grade silicon manufacturing assets from Globe Specialty Metals,
in an acquisition valued at approximately $175 million.
Dow Corning specializes in silicones and silicon-based
technology. www.dowcorning.com
Julie Byers
Terry L. Duperon
Tammy Bernier
Dr. Hamid R.
Rabie
Do you have flows up to
1,400 US GPM (320 m
3
/hr),
heads up to 3,400 feet
(1,000 m), pressures up to
1,500 psig (100 bar),
temperatures from 20F to 300F (-30C to 149C), and speeds
up to 3,500 RPM? Then you need Carver Pump RS Series muscle!
Designed for moderate to high pressure pumping applications, the RS is
available in five basic sizes with overall performance to 1,000HP. As a
standard, with a product lubricated radial sleeve bearing and two matched
angular contact ball bearings for thrust, it only takes a mechanical seal on
the low pressure, suction side to seal the pump. Optional features include
ball bearings on both ends with an outboard mechanical seal, various seal
flushing arrangements and bearing frame cooling. These features make
the RS ideally suited for Industrial and Process applications including
Pressure Boost Systems, Boiler Feed, Reverse Osmosis, Desalination
and Mine Dewatering. Whatever your application,
let us build the muscle you need!
1967 Nova Pro Street
RS Series
Creating Value.
Carver Pump Company
2415 Park Avenue
Muscatine, IA 52761
563.263.3410
Fax: 563.262.0510
www.carverpump.com
P&S News
TRASK-DECROW MACHINERY (SOUTH PORTLAND, ME)
recently reached an agreement with Weir Specialty Pumps
(www.weirpowerindustrial.com) to be its sole, authorized New
England industrial distributor.
Trask-Decrow offers sales and service of premium energy-
efcient industrial pumps and air compressors throughout New
England. www.trask-decrow.com
GENUINE PARTS COMPANY (BIRMINGHAM, AL) announced
that its Industrial Parts Group, Motion Industries, has entered
into a agreement to acquire substantially all of the North
American assets of BC Bearing (BC Bearing, US Bearings and
Norcan), headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Motion Industries is an industrial parts distributor of bear-
ings, mechanical power transmission, electrical and industrial
automation, hydraulic and industrial
hose, hydraulic and pneumatic compo-
nents, industrial products and material
handling. www.motionindustries.com
EAGLEBURGMANN (HOUSTON, TX)
announces that EagleBurgmann Saudi
Arabia Ltd. has greatly expanded its
production capacity in Saudi Arabia.
Sales, production and a service
center have been set up on an area
of approximately 2,000 m in a new
building in Al-Khobar, 30 km from the
most important air and seaport in the
eastern province.
EagleBurgmann manufactures me-
chanical seals, systems, packing and
expansion joints.
www.eagleburgmann.com
ADVANCED DESIGN TECHNOLOGY
(LONDON, UK) appoints Nfotec Digital
Engineering (division of SIKA Interplant
Systems Ltd) as distributor of ADT
products and services in India.
ADT produces advanced turboma-
chinery design methods.
www.adtechnology.co.uk
SYNCHRONY, INC. (ROANOKE, VA)
announces it has received an order from
McQuay Intl for serial production of
integrated drive trains to be used in high
efciency chillers.
Synchrony produces magnetic bear-
ings and high-speed drive trains. www.
synchrony.com
SKF USA INC. (LANSDALE, PA)
recently donated $75,000 of condition
monitoring equipment, software and
training programs to the Texas A&M
University Department of Industrial
Distribution for its new DXP Pump
Laboratory.
SKF USA Inc. provides bearing,
sealing, lubrication and linear motion
technologies. www.skfusa.com
No matter which pump type you have, KSB can
handle the diagnostics, repair or parts regardless
of the manufacturer. KSB offers you a full service
repair shop, with skilled technicians to service
your pump. Contact KSB for your next repair.
K5 Inc. 4415 Sarelleh Road Richmohd, Virgihia 23231
L-mail: a!IermarkeIksbusa.com www.ksbusa.com
LocaIions IhroughouI NorIh America and Ihe vorId!
Who Provides......
novIedge? aIis!acIion? and eneIs?
8LFORL
AF1LR
UPCOMING EVENTS
HYDRAULIC INSTITUTE ANNUAL MEETING
February 19-23
Marco Island Marriott Beach Resort / Marco Island, FL
Presented by the Hydraulic Institute
973-267-9700 / www.pumps.org
RENEWABLE ENERGY WORLD
CONFERENCE & EXPO
February 23-25
Austin Convention Center / Austin, TX
Presented by PennWell Corporation
888-299-8016 /
www.renewableenergyworld-events.com
WQA AQUATECH USA
March 9-12
Orange County Convention Center /
Orlando, FL
Presented by the Water Quality Association
630-505-0160 / www.wqa-aquatech.com
INTERNATIONAL PUMP USERS
SYMPOSIUM
March 15-18
George R. Brown Convention Center /
Houston, TX
Presented by the Texas A&M University
Turbomachinery Laboratory
979-845-7417 / turbolab.tamu.edu
FSA SPRING MEETING
April 14-16
Palm Beach Gardens, FL
Presented by the Fluid Sealing Association
610-971-4850 / www.uidsealing.com
INTERPHEX
April 20-22
Jacob K. Javits Convention Center /
New York, NY
Presented by Reed Exhibitions
888-334-8704 / www.interphex.com
PUMPTEC
May 3-4
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770-310-0866 /
www.pumpingmachinery.com
OFFSHORE TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE
May 3-6
Reliant Park / Houston, TX
Presented by OTC
972-952-9494 / www.otcnet.org
WINDPOWER CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION
May 23-26
Dallas Convention Center / Dallas, TX
Presented by the American Wind Energy Assoc.
202-383-2512 / www.windpowerexpo.org
AMERICAN WATER WORKS CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION
June 20-24
McCormick Place, West Building / Chicago, IL
Presented by the American Water Works Association
303-794-7711 / www.awwa.org/ACE10
P&S
714-893-8529
www.bluwhite.com
sales@blue-white.com
fax: 714.894.9492
5300 Business Drive
Huntington Beach, CA 92649 USA
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Pump Ed 101
L
ast month I reviewed an Excel-based Radial Thrust
Calculator and showed how it can predict the mag-
nitude of unbalanced radial thrust when a centrifugal
pump is operated to the left of BEP. This month we will
explore another calculator that can help identify pumps that
may be problematic when operated on either side of BEP.
I suspect that most readers will agree that Terry
Henshaws year-long series on NPSH (Understanding NPSH)
has been extremely useful and informative. His September,
October and November 2009 columns addressed an NPSH
topic that may have been new to many of us. Suction Specic
Speed (S or Nss) and its effect on NPSH margin can be
a useful parameter in identifying pumps that could have a
high potential for suction recirculation-induced cavitation.
As Henshaw said, S is an indication of the aggressiveness
of an impeller eye design. As the ratio of eye diameter to
peripheral diameter increases, NPSHR typically decreases,
but a reduction in a pumps stable window of operation can
be an unexpected byproduct.
As shown below, the equation for S is similar to the
equation for Pump Specic Speed (Ns). The only difference
is that Head (H) is replaced with NPSHR.
S = N Q / NPSHR
0.75

S is directly proportional to the pump speed in RPM
(N) and the square root of pump ow in GPM (Q). It is
inversely proportional to NPSHR to the three quarter power.
Therefore, S will increase with an increase in speed and/or
ow and decrease with an increase in NPSHR. NPSHR is
also an indication of the aggressiveness of the impeller eye
design. Lower values of NPSHR usually indicate a larger eye
diameter ratio. As Henshaw mentioned in his September
article, a ow reduction at the entrance of a large eye can
result in a partial reversal of ow toward the suction pipe.
The vortices created by such a reversal can lead to the onset
of cavitation.
An Excel-based Suction Specic Speed calculator is
Joe Evans, Ph.D.
Suction Calculators
Pump Ed 101
Figure 1
shown to the left of Figure 1 and is available for download from
my website (www.PumpEd101.com). Entering the required
data in the three yellow cells will result in the calculation of
S. The chart below the calculator shows the stable window of
operation for several values of S. Normally, suction recircula-
tion occurs at low ows, but with increasing values of S, suc-
tion recirculation will begin at higher than expected ow rates.
Many experts specify that pumps with a value of S greater than
9,000 may require a sizeable increase in NPSH margin if they
are to maintain a stable window of operation.
Another indicator of potential suction recirculation is
a quantity known as Suction Energy (SE). (Reference: H.P.
Bloch and A.R. Budris, Pump Users Handbook, Life Extension/
Fairmont Press). SE is an indication of a liquids momentum
at the impeller eye and takes S a step further. As shown in the
equation below, it is the product of the eye diameter (De),
pump RPM (N), suction specic speed (S) and specic gravity
(SG).
SE = De x N x S x SG

The SE calculator appears to the right of Figure 1.
Entering the required data in the highlighted cells will result
in the calculation on SE. The table below the calculator shows
the values for the start of high and very high suction energy for
several pump designs. Pumps that exhibit a high SE can expe-
rience vibration, noise and minor cavitation damage. Those
with an extremely high SE can experience more severe erosion
due to cavitation.
The example used in both calculators is a dry pit non-clog
with a 12 in suction and a two vane, 18.5 in impeller. BEP
ow is 5,000 gpm @ 105 ft and requires a NPSH of 10 ft.
Both calculators conrm very high values of S and SE, which
indicate that a large NPSH margin is required for this pump
to operate at off BEP ows.
Igor Karassik was the major force behind the develop-
ment of suction specic speed. In the mid-80s he wrote a
three article series titled Centrifugal Pump Operation at Off
Design Conditions. They are written in a simple Pump Ed
101 style and are available on my website under the Other
Pump Topics tab. They are denitely worth reading.
P&S
Joe Evans is responsible for customer and employee edu-
cation at PumpTech Inc, a pumps and packaged systems
manufacturer and distributor with branches throughout the
Pacic Northwest. He can be reached via his website www.
PumpEd101.com. If there are topics that you would like to
see discussed in future columns, drop him an email.
Corrective
elbow surgery
Improve pump efficiency. Install
CRV Flex at the elbow and flow
exits with a flat velocity profile.
Find details, configurations and
sizes at: www.metraflex.com
2008 The Metraflex Co.
1-312-738-3800 1-800-621-4347
The Source for
Pump Expertise
The Pumps & Systems
editors have carefully
selected an exclusive
collection of textbooks,
guidelines, manuals,
standards and technical
materials related to
the pump and rotating
equipment industry in our
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www.PumpBooks.com.
The Source for Pump Expertise
The Source for Pump Expertise
I
n the February 2008 issue, we discussed various ways
to lift water (Lifting Water: What Are Your Pump
Options?, Pumping Prescriptions, available at www.
pump-zone.com). Starting with the 4,000-year-old
Archimedes Screw, we touched on the advantages and dis-
advantages of options including the vertical sump, wet sub-
mersible pump, dry submersible, dry well close proximity
design and dry well U-jointed shafting option.
As always, we received comments and feedback from
many of you, including the question: How do I move from
my situation to a better one? In other words, is it possible
to retrot a less-than-optimal installation with a better solu-
tion, and how?
Websters Dictionary denes the verb to retrot as:
1. Provide with parts, devices or equipment not available
or in use at the time of the original manufacture
2. Fit in or on an existing structure
3. Substitute new or modernized parts or equipment for
older ones
Retrotting compromises between two extremes: repair
of the component(s) within the installation versus complete
replacement of the entire installation.
A retrot is considered when the old equipment begins
to fail too frequently (for instance, the pump shafts break
every year) and when a partial modernization of the instal-
lation is signicantly less expensive than removing the
entire system and replacing it with a more modern one. For
example, replacing a lift station with a new one could cost
a municipality tens of millions. In such a case, new ideas,
technologies and methods can solve the problems of old,
obsolete and outdated designs.
Recent ooding from natural disasters, like storms and
hurricanes, has added a new dimension to the challenges
facing municipalities. The options described in the February
2008 article may not all provide foolproof assurance against
a statistically unlikely, but potentially disastrous, ood.
Sump pump or dry pit (close proximity or U-jointed)
options keep the motor far from the pump and protect
against ood, but a long shaft imposes unbalance whip
forces that can increase with time and reduce pump reliabil-
ity. Submersible pumps (either wet or dry) solve the issue of
the motor for awhile, but their windings are separated from
the pumpage by a mechanical seal. If it fails, the pumpage
can ood the windings and kill the motor. Another possible
option is a submersible motor not directly coupled to the
wet end, but with a regular coupling between it and the
pump.
One of the benets of retrotting with a submersible
motor is that the wet end (the pump) does not change. The
regular motor (whether coupled in close proximity or sepa-
rated by long, U-jointed shafting) is removed and replaced
with a submersible motor. The shaft of the submersible
motor is not directly attached to the pump impeller and is
separated by the seal. The bearing housing of the pump is
modied to have its shaft separately coupled to the motor
shaft.
During normal operation, such a retrotted installation
operates normally as a dry or wet motor. In the event of ood-
ing, even of the entire station, the submersible duty motor is
not affected; it continues to operate as a regular submersible
motor since it is designed to operate underwater.
Such a retrot saves the millions required to construct
a new station or remove it from a ood zone. At a mini-
mum, it saves hundreds of thousands that would be needed
to replace the entire pump with a new design and modify
the piping to t to the anges of a new pump.
Dr. Lev Nelik, P.E., APICS
Retrotting Lift Stations
with Submersible Motors
Pumping Prescriptions
Submersible Motor Setup
The compactness of the design
makes it more efcient, and saves
energy. Typical water lift stations have
motors with a wide range of horsepower.
Operating a relatively small motor (say,
400 hp) costs more than $250,000 a
year, assuming non-stop operation at
$0.10/kWh energy cost. Even a 10 per-
cent savings would amount to $25,000
year, not to mention provide a more
reliable, dependable design.
It is easy to design an expensive
system, but not so easy to avoid com-
plexity and maintenance issues. In con-
trast, it takes time and attention to detail
to design a simple, reliable system.
As always, we welcome feedback,
questions or suggestions and will
include as many as possible in a future
issue of Pumps & Systems. In the mean-
time, keep on pumping!
P&S
On
pump-zone.com
Read more of Lev Neliks
Pumping Prescriptions.
Dr. Nelik (aka Dr. Pump) is presi-
dent of Pumping Machinery, LLC,
an Atlanta-based rm specializing
in pump consulting, training, equip-
ment troubleshooting and pump
repairs. Dr. Nelik has 30 years expe-
rience in pumps and pumping equip-
ment. He has published more than
50 documents. He can be contacted
at www.PumpingMachinery.com.
In the event of flooding, even of the entire station, the
submersible duty motor is not affected; it continues
to operate as a regular submersible motor since it is
designed to operate underwater.
Acceleration Head for
Centrifugal Pumps
I
f a centrifugal pump is started with the discharge valve
open too far and with a low discharge pressure, the
liquid in the suction line may accelerate at a rate that
causes the suction pressure to drop below vapor pressure.
In other words, you can cause cavitation by allowing the
pumpage to accelerate too rapidly in the suction line.
If the pumps capacity is controlled by a quick open-
ing valve on the discharge side (such as seen in steel mill
descaling systems), the pump may be provided with insuf-
cient NPSH when the pumpage is accelerating to the rated
capacity.
The equation for calculating the head drop due to
the acceleration (assuming uniform acceleration) may be
reduced to the following:
h
a
=
L(V
2
- V
1
)
gt
(19-1)
Where:
h
a
= Head required to accelerate the liquid in the suc-
tion line, feet or meters
L = Total length of the suction line, feet or meters
V
2
= The nal velocity of pumpage, feet/sec or meters/
sec
V
1
= The initial velocity of pumpage, feet/sec or
meters/sec
g = Acceleration of gravity (32.2 ft/s
2
or 9.8 m/s
2
)
t = Time increment that pumpage accelerates from V
1

to V
2
, seconds
Acceleration Head for Reciprocating
Pumps
Pulsing Flow Requires More NPSH
The ow in the suction and discharge piping of a recipro-
cating pump is not constant. The pumpage must accelerate
and decelerate a number of times for each revolution of the
crankshaft. Because the liquid has mass, and therefore inertia,
energy is required to produce the acceleration. This energy is
returned to the system upon deceleration, so there is no loss.
However, sufcient NPSH must be provided on the suction
side of the pump to accelerate the liquid to prevent cavita-
tion in the suction pipe and/or pumping chambers.
Figure 1 plots the ideal relative uid velocity in the suc-
tion pipe for a typical triplex power pump as a function of
the rotative angle of the crankshaft. (To achieve this ideal
velocity prole, the pumpage must be incompressible, and
the pump valves must open and close at the beginning and
end of the plunger stroke, which is often not the case.)
Acceleration may be more clearly visualized if we change the
scales on this curve. If we change the abscissa from degrees of
rotation to time (which is done by dividing by 360 and revo-
lutions per second), and change the ordinate to pipe velocity
rather than relative velocity (by multiplying by average pipe
velocity), we have a plot of velocity versus time in the suc-
tion pipe.
Since acceleration is the rate of change of velocity with
respect to time (dv/dt), we can determine acceleration simply
by measuring the slope of the velocity curves. We see that a
triplex pump produces maximum acceleration at 0 deg, 120
deg and 240 deg of crankshaft rotation.
The Acceleration Head Equation
We can calculate the mass of liquid in the suction line, and
its acceleration. Then using Newtons second law (F = ma)
we can calculate the force required to accelerate that mass.
We can then convert this to pressure by dividing by the
cross-sectional area of the pipe. Fortunately this has already
been done, and appears in a number of documents. The rst
known appearance of the equation shown below was in a sec-
tion of Marks Handbook (5) by Elliott Wright. The author
accepted and promoted it, and it subsequently appeared in
Hydraulic Institute standards (2). Those documents provide
the following equation:
h
a
=
LVNC
gk
(19-2)
Where:
h
a
= Acceleration head, feet
L = Actual length of suction line, feet (not equivalent
length)
V = Average liquid velocity in suction line, feet/second
N = Speed of pump crankshaft, revolutions/minute
Terry Henshaw, P.E.
Acceleration Head
The Thirteenth in a Series
Understanding NPSH
C = Constant depending on pump type
= 0.400 for single-acting simplex
= 0.200 for single-acting duplex
= 0.115 for double-acting duplex
= 0.066 for triplex
= 0.040 for quintuplex
= 0.028 for septuplex
= 0.022 for nonuplex
g = Gravitational constant =
32.2 feet/sec
2
k = Constant depending on uid
compressibility
= 1.4 for non-compressible liquids
such as deaerated water
= 1.5 for most liquids
= 2.5 for compressible liquids such
as ethane
Two or More Pumps Running in Parallel
If two or more pumps operate in parallel, with
a common suction line, acceleration head is
calculated for the common line by assuming
that all pumps are synchronized, acting as one
large pump. (The capacities of all pumps are
added to determine line velocity.)
Figure 1. Relative Velocity of Liquid in the Suction Pipe of a Triplex Power Pump
Understanding NPSH
Dampening the Pulsations
Any characteristic of the suction system that tends to absorb
the pulses from the pump will reduce acceleration head. The
suction stabilizer, therefore, helps those systems with exces-
sive acceleration head and/or with gas entrained in the liquid.
(The most effective suction stabilizer is a ow-through type
that also separates free gas from the liquid. Any excess gas must
be vented from the stabilizer, possibly piped back to the vapor
space in the suction vessel.)
According to Hydraulic Institute standards (2), a properly
selected, installed and maintained dampener will reduce the
effective length of the suction line in the above equation to
about 10 pipe diameters, i.e., for a 6 in suction pipe, L would
be about 60 in (5 ft). This would result in a calculated accelera-
tion head in Problem 1 (right) of only 0.7 psi.
Another effective method of reducing acceleration head
on an atmospheric-pressure suction system is to install a sec-
tion of soft hose as part of the suction line, adjacent to the
pump.
Shortcomings of This Equation
Equation 19-2 is not sophisticated enough to compensate for
such factors as system elasticity and the velocity of a pressure
wave in the pumpage (sonic velocity due to liquid elasticity).
It is therefore recommended for use only for relatively short,
non-elastic suction lines.
Miller (3) reported that his tests indicated acceleration
head to be much less than calculated with the above equation.
Some eld installations also operate satisfactorily with NPSHA
considerably less than this equation indicates as necessary. On
the other hand, some installations require NPSH that agrees
favorably with this equation.
The reason for these discrepancies is not known, but, in
addition to the above, it may be due to gas, such as air, being
liberated (or trapped) in the suction line. Any gas entrained in
the liquid, or collected at a high point in the suction piping,
tends to absorb the pulsations from the pump, and thereby
reduces acceleration head.
Some pump operators have reported that suction stabi-
lizers, which were designed to also separate and accumulate
gas, have, to their surprise, required periodic venting. If the
stabilizer had not been in the suction line (or did not have
this separation feature), the pump would have ingested gas,
possibly resulting in shock operation, or in the extreme case,
causing one or more pumping chambers to become gas bound
or vapor locked. Without the stabilizer, the agitation in the
suction line would have been greater, and more gas could have
been liberated. The pressure shocks caused by gas ingestion
can cause failure of pump and system components (1).
The Water Hammer Equation
For a quick closing (or opening) valve, reference 4 provides the
equation for water hammer as follows:
h = cV/g (19-3)
Where:
h = Head increase or decrease
c = Sonic velocity in liquid
V = Change in velocity
g = Acceleration of gravity
This equation provides the maximum head that a quick
operating valve can generate. Note that the length of the pipe
is absent from the equation, and enters into the evaluation
only to the extent that it determines how fast the valve must
close (or open) to be considered as quick operating. This equa-
tion could therefore be used to calculate a more accurate pump
acceleration head if we could accurately determine the change
in velocity of the pumpage in the pipe.
Unfortunately, the velocity change is more complex than
shown in Figure 1, because it is dependent on the uid com-
pressibility, the clearance volume in the pumping chamber
and the effectiveness of the valve springs in closing the pump
valves quickly enough for smooth pump operation. (A weak or
broken spring, on either a suction or discharge valve, will cause
a signicant velocity change.) All these factors are difcult to
establish for eld installations.
At one time, one pump vendor produced power pumps
that, because of unique construction of the uid end, could
not be equipped with springs on the suction valves. A vendor
of pulsation dampeners once remarked (without knowing the
reason) that that pump brand required twice the discharge
dampener of other vendors pumps. Sound level tests, on a
number of brands of power pumps, also revealed that the
springless pumps were noisier than equivalent pumps with
Problem 1. Acceleration Head for a
Reciprocating Pump
A 5 in stroke triplex plunger pump, with 3 in diameter
plungers, is running 250 rpm and pumping 109 gpm of lean
oil with a specic gravity of 0.78. The suction line consists
of 40 ft of 6 in schedule 40 pipe. The actual lengths (not
equivalent lengths) of all elbows and tees are included in the
40 ft. Calculate the acceleration head in feet and PSI.
(Let k = 1.5.)
V = 0.409
Q
D
2
= 0.409
109
6
2
= 1.24 ft/s
h
a
=
LVNC
gk
=
40x1.24x250x0.066
32.2x1.5
= 17 ft
h
a
=
17
2.31
0.78 = 6 psi
valve springs. Adequate springs are
required on both suction and discharge
valves to provide a quiet, smooth run-
ning power pump.
References
1. Henshaw, Terry L., Reciprocating Pumps, Van
Nostrand Reinhold Co., Inc., 1987.
2. Hydraulic Institute Standards, Hydraulic
Institute, 9 Sylvan Way, Suite 360, Parsippany,
NJ 07054-3802.
3. Miller, J. E., Experimental Investigation of
Plunger Pump Suction Conditions, ASME
Paper 64-PET-14, 1964.
4. Daugherty and Ingersoll, Fluid Mechanics, 5th
Edition, McGraw-Hill Book Co., NY, 1954.
5. Marks Mechanical Engineers Handbook, 6th
Edition, pg. 14-6, McGraw-Hill Book Co,
New York, 1958.
P&S
Terry Henshaw is a retired consulting
engineer who designs pumps and related
high pressure equipment and conducts
pump seminars. For 30 years, he was
employed by Ingersoll Rand and Union
Pump. Henshaw served in various posi-
tions in the Hydraulic Institute, ANSI
Subcommittee B73.2, API 674 manu-
facturers subcommittee and ASME
Performance Test Code Committee PTC
7.2. He authored a book on reciprocat-
ing pumps, several magazine articles
and the two pump sections in Marks
Handbook (11th Edition). He has been
awarded six patents. Henshaw is a reg-
istered professional engineer in Texas
and Michigan, is a life fellow of the
ASME and holds engineering degrees
from Rice University and the University
of Houston. He can be reached at pum-
prof@att.net.
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The Aftermarket
Babbitt Bearings
B
abbitt bearings, frequently found in large steam tur-
bines and generators in major power plants, can pro-
vide years of service if properly maintained.
By using state-of-the-art technology and repair prac-
tices, aftermarket suppliers who
specialize in Babbitt bearings can
repair equipment and increase the
life of Babbitt bearings by:
Converting from lead to
tin-based alloys, producing
a strengthened bond and an
increased bearing life
Providing centrifugal cast-
ing, which can be a better
alternative to static pours to
strengthen the bond
Converting from cast iron
housings to steel, which creates a better bond and
increases overall strength
Enhancing machining practices and reducing need for
hand scraping
Once a Babbitt bearing has
been reconditioned, repair centers
should quality check the bearings,
ensure proper shaft clearances and
oil relief, see that oil holes are sized
per specications and concentric-
ity and that all parts undergo an
ultrasonic inspection to ensure
proper bonding.
To ensure a long service life,
it is imperative during the casting
process that new Babbitt material
must be free from contamination
Babbitt Bearing Repair
for a Power Plant
Pat Trentler and Jim Jenkins, Quadna, Inc.
How skilled aftermarket Babbitt bearing
experts helped a power plant return to service.
Left: A damaged
bearing after
removal from the
shaft.
Above: Centrifugal
casting machine
during a Babbitt
repair.
Right: Babbitt after
service and repair
and meet stringent specications. Specic temperatures for
both the Babbitt and bearing must be maintained to prevent
the removal of tin, and oxidation to the shell. Specic revo-
lutions per minute must also be maintained during the spin
cast process. Other critical elements are good bonding of the
Babbitt to the bearing shell, as well as proper outside dimen-
sions, joint line contact and pin alignment.
While Babbitt bearings are durable,
like any bearings, they can eventually
fail when operated in adverse condi-
tions or when catastrophic occurrences
occur within rotating equipment. The
later is exactly what happened to one
U.S. power plant during a typical busi-
ness day.
Power Plant Reliability
Ensuring power is available for busi-
nesses and residents 24 hours a day is
a challenge for any power generating
entity. When one of the largest electric
generation and transmission coopera-
tives in the United States experienced a
problem with a turbine, an aftermarket
supplier specializing in Babbitt bearings
received the call for help.
The coal-red power plant experi-
enced a forced shutdown of one of its
turbines. Through a series of simultane-
ous and unlikely events, both the pri-
mary and back-up oil lubrication pumps
became inoperable, causing a loss of
lubrication supply to all of the critical
Babbitt bearings within the turbine and
generator set. The loss of lubrication
signicantly damaged the turbine and
generator Babbitt bearings.
Babbitt, like most bearing types,
requires lubricant to reduce friction and
remove heat from the bearing, rotating
shaft and stationary housing. Babbitt
bearings are a uid lm, or hydrody-
namic, type of bearing, meaning that a
uid lm of lubricating oil is required
between the bearing surface and shaft.
The oil lm actually supports the
shaft as it lubricates, reduces friction
and removes heat. This bearing type is
used in critical equipment because of
its unique ability to handle high shaft
speed and vibration. These unique bear-
ings are also used for their imbeddabil-
ity in the event impurities are present in
the operating environment.
Immediately following the forced shutdown, the after-
market supplier was one of the rst companies put on standby
to assist with upcoming repairs. Due to the potentially signi-
cant nancial impact to the plant from lost production, the
repairs required an around-the-clock effort to meet necessary
deliveries and restore power generation capabilities.
Once the cooperative was able to fully assess the damage,
The Aftermarket
it found signicant damage to nine bearings, four of which
ultimately required a complete rebuild of the bearing shells as
well as rebabbitting; nine oil deectors required rebuilding as
well.
The most serious damage to bearings and deectors came
from the turbine journal contacting the bearing shell once
it had worn through the Babbitt lining. The excessive heat
buildup caused warping in all of the critical t areas.
Restoring these bearings to a usable condition required
a weld build up of the spherical bearing seat on the bearing
outside dimension and stress relief of the shell, followed by the
centrifugal casting of the Babbitt. In addition, prior to nal
machining, it was necessary to mill the split lines to restore
atness and re-drill and pin all of the alignment holes.
After repairing the bearing bore,
the nal restoration step was machin-
ing of the spherical bearing seat on the
outside dimension of the bearing that
had been welded previously. Because
this critical surface must be exact in its
size, the ball seats were nish machined
on a CNC lathe, then hand-t to their
housings to ensure they met the OEMs
specications.
Through the course of the repairs,
the aftermarket supplier met all required
delivery dates while upholding the high
standard of quality required for this type
of work. The project, from initial con-
tact through completion, took approxi-
mately ve weeks, requiring multiple
overnight bearing shipments, which
weighed up to three tons each. Most
of the work was performed by Babbitt
repair specialists in a centralized loca-
tion; however, due to the extent of the
machine work required, and the rush
nature of the project, other resources
and vendor partners were called upon
to assist.
P&S
Pat Trentler is the
Casper branch
manager for
Quadna, Inc.,
1320 Overlook
Drive, Casper, WY
82604, 307-234-
6979, ptrentler@quadna.com.
Jim Jenkins is the
Salt Lake City
area manager
for Quadna,
Inc., 3245 South
Bouwhuls Drive,
West Haven, UT
88401, 601-317-1820, jjenkins@
quadna.com.
M
ore than 15 years ago, a 160 in plate mill
was experiencing signicant mainte-
nance problems with its descaling pumps;
the typical mean time between repairs was only 6
to 8 months. Some rebuilt pumps even failed on
start-up.
Descaling is one of the more severe, but criti-
cal, services in a steel mill. The pressures are high
and the rapid changes in ows and pressures severely
impact the pumps. At the same time, the pumps
performance can signicantly impact the quality of
the steel produced.
Improvements to these pumps were imple-
mented in various phases over several years. The
path was not always straightforward and required
close cooperation and teamwork between the after-
market service provider and mill personnel to imple-
ment various upgrades.
Root Cause Analysis
Rotor Condition Analysis
At the start of the project, all of the pumps, which had been in
service since the early 1970s, were exhibiting high noise levels
along with abnormally high vibration, erosive wear and consis-
tent, frequent maintenance problems.
The rst step was to comprehensively analyze the pump
rotor in a process called Rotor Condition Analysis. The Rotor
Condition Analysis report, coupled with analysis of eld oper-
ating conditions, provided the forensic evidence to identify the
root causes of pump problems. This data, when analyzed in
conjunction with the operational data, vibration readings and
other eld information, enables the aftermarket providers engi-
neers to troubleshoot the pump and develop recommendations
to solve the identied problems.
Recommendations:
Engineering Review and Upgrades
Engineering review of the rotor and the eld data revealed
multiple issues. Because of the pumps complexity and critical
nature, the engineers and mill personnel agreed to implement
upgrades in a phased approach, analyzing system improvements
at each phase.
The problems affecting pump life can be categorized as
system problems, mechanical problems, material selections and
hydraulic problems.
System Problems
The rst major improvement, implemented in the late 1980s,
was adding a water ltration system to remove sand from the
descale water. This improvement not only solved the erosive
wear problem, but also made it feasible to address the other
issues.
Cost Reductions Through
Life Cycle Improvements
George Harris, Hydro, Inc. and Ken Babusiak, HydroAire, Inc.
A case study on the methods used to improve the reliability
and extend the life of descaling pumps in a steel mill.
Figure 1: A typical sectional view of a descaling pump
The Aftermarket
Mechanical Problems
Pump Clearances and Concentricities
Analyzing the dimensions of the impeller running clearances,
cover-to-cover ts and volute-to-cover ts revealed that these
clearances exceeded the aftermarket providers best practice rec-
ommendations by 30 to 200 percent.
Reduced running clearances increase the pumps overall
efciency by reducing the amount of internal leakage. Tighter
clearances have been shown to reduce vibration by increasing
damping in the pump.
Concentricities are extremely critical to a pumps life
cycle. Maintaining concentricities allows pumps to be built
with tighter ts and clearances and better balance, all of which
contribute to improved pump life. If the rotating impeller ring
turns are not concentric with the sta-
tionary case wear rings, then some dia-
metrical clearance is needed to prevent
rubbing as the pump is operated.
Eccentricity can occur if:
The shaft is not straight.
The wear rings on the impellers are
not concentric with the impeller
bore.
The case wear rings are not concen-
tric to the casing bore.
The t between the impellers and the
shaft is loose (clearance) instead of
tight (interference).
The t between the stage pieces is
loose instead of tight.
All of these issues had to be addressed
in the upgraded pump rebuild.
Manufacturing a pump shaft with
a stringent T.I.R. requires a skilled
machinist and properly prepared shaft-
ing material. Specially heat-treated
material ensures that residual stresses
do not cause bowing during or after the
machining process.
Balancing to 1W/N
Many texts indicate that rotor unbal-
ance accounts for 70 percent of rotat-
ing equipment vibration problems. The
excessive clearances and loose t of the
components on the original rotor indi-
cated a rotor with signicant, unaccept-
able unbalance.
For increased reliability and longer
run times, the aftermarket provider
dynamically balances the impellers and
rotors of high-energy pumps to a strin-
gent standard of 1W/N, where W rep-
resents one half the weight of the com-
ponent being balanced and N represents
the operating speed. For comparison,
API 610 recommends balancing to
8W/N for multistage pumps operating
below 3,800 rpm.
Unlike many centrifugal pumps,
barrel pump rotors must be disassembled
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after the rotor has been balanced and reassembled when the ele-
ment is stacked. To maintain the same degree of balance during
the stacking process, impellers must be repositioned in the same
location and position using the same keys and locating rings
with which they were initially balanced. Careful marking of the
components ensures that the right parts get put in the correct
positions. Impeller bores with shrink ts and vertical stacking
ensure that parts return to their original
balance positions.
When possible, the aftermarket
provider further check balances the
rotor with the coupling installed. This
precision approach to balancing requires
additional time and cost, but can signi-
cantly extend pump life.
Material Selections
The aftermarket provider previously
worked closely with Dr. Elemer Makay, a
leading authority on high energy pumps,
who pioneered the use of a special gall
resistant and free machining grade of
stainless steel for wear rings. When hard-
ened, this upgraded material permits the
pump to be built with tighter running
clearances without seizing. In phase 2 of
the implementation, the impellers, stage
pieces and twin volutes were upgraded
to a special stainless steel to improve
weldability.
Rotor Stabilization Improvements
Upgraded Design of Stationary Wear
Components
The original pump was furnished with
saw tooth grooves on the stationary
wear components: case wear rings, dif-
fuser bushings and break down bushings.
The saw tooth geometry disrupts ow,
causing high turbulence and increased friction coefcient.
Past experience with the saw toothed grooving in abrasive
service applications indicates that saw tooth grooves trap and
locally increase the concentration of abrasive particles. Coupled
with high turbulence, this results in an accelerated wear rate
and larger running clearances.
The aftermarket provider upgraded the stationary wear
Figure 2. Vertical assembly of a multistage
barrel pump
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The Aftermarket
components by furnishing Lomakin grooves (see Figure 3). This
improvement helps extend a centrifugal pumps wear cycle by damp-
ing the vibration.
Rotor Centralization
This process involves the centering of the rotating hydraulic compo-
nents (impellers) within the stationary hydraulic components (dif-
fusers or volutes) and must be performed to implement the A gap
modication. It may also improve pump efciency and reduce axial
thrust loads. Before upgrading, the pumps impeller-to-volute center-
lines were typically separated from each other by as much as 0.090
in. The rotor was centralized to signicantly reduce turbulent ow.
Hydraulic Design Improvements
A and B Gap Modications
Figure 4 shows the geometry associated with the A and B Gap modi-
cations, which Dr. Makay pioneered in the 1970s for high-energy
boiler feed pumps.
Coupled together, these modications improve the shape of the
head capacity curve at part load, stabilize axial thrust developed by
the impellers, provide positive rotor dynamic damping and increase
pump efciency.
As descale pumps are in severe service, operating continuously
between minimum and rated ows, these improvements usually
Figure 3
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result in longer life. It was thought that the A and B gap modi-
cations would also reduce vibration.
While vibration levels were reduced, the high vibration at
three times running speed did not decrease as anticipated. This
led to a phase 3 improvement.
Vane Pass Frequency
The descale pump was originally manufactured using both
three and ve vane impellers in the same rotor. In the last phase
of the upgrade implementation, all impellers were converted
to ve vanes, which substantially reduced the vibration at vane
pass frequency. The ve-vane impeller is the current, standard
conguration.
Following this upgrade, vibration was measured at just
0.17 inches/second.
George Harris is president of Hydro, Inc., a global pump
aftermarket company with 40 years experience specializing
in pump engineering, repair, testing and eld services. Ken
Babusiak is vice president of HydroAire, two Chicago-based
service centers in Hydros North American network that
includes locations in Los Angeles, Houston, Beaumont, Deer
Park, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Vancouver, Edmonton and
Monterrey. For questions or comments, please contact them
at gharris@hydroinc.com or kbabusiak@hydroinc.com.
Figure 4
(continued on page 60)
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Pump System Optimization & Energy Conservation
W
hile turbo pumps cover the full range of specic
speeds, the overwhelming majority run at low
specic speeds and are comprised of an inlet
pipe or duct, an impeller and an exit volute. Recent design
advances have been few since some producing companies do
not have a single hydrodynamicist on their staffs.
By contrast, industrial process pumps, including boiler
feed pumps, have a complex inlet, an impeller of any spe-
cic speed (and may require special treatment to deal with
higher velocities), a diffuser and either a return channel or a
crossover to deliver the ow to the next stage, in the case of
the multistage machines. (Industrial process pumps include
irrigation pumps and deep well pumps for home or business
water supply.)
Progress toward assisting pump designers to deliver
superior, efcient pump designs for these complex construc-
tions must be predicated on the basis of possible design
improvements, the tools to assist such work and the avail-
ability of necessary staff. Improving pump design is a worthy
goal; according to The Freedonia Group, Inc., a Cleveland-
based industry market research rm, Global demand for
uid handling pumps is forecast to increase at a 4.4 percent
annual rate to $47 billion in 2012. To address this chal-
lenge, we will look at what is needed technically and then
what is becoming available.
Possibilities for Improvement
Figure 1 is a well-known plot from Stepanoff (1948, 1957),
showing roughly the breakout of losses in various pumps.
To achieve superior designs, we must mitigate these losses.
Similar diagrams exist for radial compressors and turbines
because they all have the same core issues involved: friction
dominates at low specic speeds, and kinetic energy effects
dominate at high specic speeds. (For instance, items 5a and
5b in Figure 1 are actually kinetic energy effects also found in
other machinery classes.)
Figure 1 shows that at low specic speeds, the process
is dominated by friction (particularly disk friction) and, in
some cases, leakage losses. On a direct assault, we will make
little headway against such a tough challenge. At high spe-
cic speeds, the game changes: one must be careful to deal
with kinetic energy effects (disk friction may be a tiny con-
tributor), so we must treat all viscous processes with care and
achieve excellent diffusion and overall control of the ow
eld. This is a different design challenge, and one for which
superb tools exist.
Meeting Increased
Demand for Efcient
Pump Designs
Dr. David Japikse, Concepts NREC
A look at the possibilities and tools available
to improve pump designs.
Figure 1. Estimated distribution of loss elements in typical
centrifugal pumps. (from Japikse, et al., 1997)
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Pump System Optimization & Energy Conservation
Do not forget the middle ground in Figure 1 because the
highest efciencies are found there. Efciencies can be several
points higher than at nearby higher and lower specic speeds. A
change in speed is needed to reach this middle ground, at least
for many instances where both head and ow may be frozen.
Speed can be adapted quite easily today and carries a
small price for gaining efciency, a price often compensated
by improved part load operations and savings. Our traditional
reliance on simple synchronous motors needs to be updated,
and, in some cases, greater care will have to be taken to avoid
cavitation (see below). The good news is that higher rotational
speeds lead to smaller diameter machines, which afford greater
design opportunity. One of these opportunities is the potential
to include a proper diffuser to achieve a more efcient stage,
and while these are now used worldwide for high performance
engineered pumps, they are not common for mass-produced
pumps.
Figure 2 gives an example of a pump stage reported in the
past in Holland.
With better design speed, some reduction in diameter and
a diffuser included, there is the possibility of a performance
gainone that is worthy of real design optimization. Other
possibilities exist as well, including the usage of high perfor-
mance crossovers for multistage pumps, such as shown in
Figure 3.
These crossovers have been shown to have excellent dif-
fusion and low losses, a fact that can be carried over to many
other applications.
Tools to Improve Performance
Clearly, possibilities exist to achieve improved performance. The
modern tools to improve the designs include Computational
Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and three dimensional (3-D) nite ele-
ment stress and modal analysis (FEA). Interestingly, however,
these tools will not achieve much if we stay locked in the design
world of the past and try to tweak low speed designs where disk
friction will dominate. An inexperienced designer might pick
up a point here or there with such tools, but a better designer
probably does not leave such glitches in his designs in the rst
place.
When modern applications are considered with modern
motors and controls, it is tempting to start into new designs
with some of the available modern tools available. However,
much has been learned from experience that should not be lost
at this stage of the process.
Meanline design must come rst so that intelligent choices
are made for the optimal inlet velocity triangles, both with
respect to efciency and cavitation avoidance. Likewise, the exit
velocity triangles must be carefully selected and matched to the
diffusers downstream, a process that has been handled better in
the compressor industry than in the pump industry. Therefore,
we would be well-advised to borrow a few pages from compres-
sor design experience in this particular case. One should never
miss the opportunity to sort out issues at the meanline level;
otherwise, one pays for such oversights all the way through the
process and never xes the damage done.
For the past 50 years, designers have learned how to
develop good stages without CFD, and better ones today aided
by CFD. Using conventional blade shaping techniques with
Figure 2. A conventional clear water pump with an added diffuser
cascade. The impeller is not explicitly shown; it sits at the outer
circle inside the diffuser cascade. (from Japikse, et al., 1997)
Figure 3. Vertical pump stage with impeller and continuous
crossover; orderly streamlines are shown throughout.
(from Japikse, et al., 1997)
Figure 4. The use of CFD (left) and FEA (right) permits welcomed
precision in the design of advanced pumps and troubleshooting
of earlier pumps. Note the pressure distortion in the volute exit
bend; this has been reduced by using overlap prior to the bend.
This distortion is a primary source of radial sideloads on pump
systems with reduced service life. Note the need for improved
llet radius in the FEA example.
through-
ow solvers
permits clear
exercise of
the skills and
results of
the past ve
decades.
Optimization is key for competitive
success today. The skilled practitioner
of modern design can explore from a
stress (FEA) and a performance (CFD)
basis and has several alternative codes
available in each area. At this point, one
considers the full impact of open versus
closed impellers on the details of leak-
age, thrust and optimum blade design.
One looks at the process of design for
minimum weight and stress to maxi-
mize life and lower cost but keep best
performance. Material selection enters
in, including even plastics (which are
rather common today in many pump
applications). In addition, the choice
of metals, when required, is made with
greater condence.
CFD is based on a full 3-D solu-
tion of the Navier-Stokes equations,
which are the full viscous ow equa-
tions governing the processes of inter-
est. FEA is the full 3-D solution for the
solid body forces and the body response
to the operation of the hardware. Figure
4 illustrates some of the computational
possibilities.
It is only recently that we could
even dream of possible solutions for
these equations, and only the last few
years have given us fast, powerful com-
puters for individual usage with these
systems. We must, therefore, be careful
of shortcomings that might accompany
these powerful but new tools.
Conclusion
Even though we use billions of pumps
today, there will be a large increase in the
number of pumps in use worldwide, and
we need all of the efciency that we can
get to minimize the power usage. This
will be achieved by a combination of
historical experience and powerful new
tools such as CFD and FEA.
P&S
David Japikse is chairman of the board, founder and CEO of Concepts NREC (www.
ConceptsNREC.com) where he oversees the design and development of various centrifugal com-
pressor, pump and turbine stages including the development of design tools. Japikse has written or
coauthored seven books: Axial and Radial Turbines, Advanced Experimental Techniques in
Turbomachinery, Introduction to Turbomachinery, Advanced Topics in Turbomachinery
Technology, Centrifugal Compressor Design and Performance, Centrifugal Pump Design
and Performance and Turbomachinery Diffuser Design Technology,
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Maintenance Minders
V
ertical pumps are a popular choice in the water indus-
try because they provide many advantages. A vertical
pump typically uses one-quarter of the oor space of a
motor-driven horizontal pump. The driver is off the oor and
less prone to ood damage. Since impellers are always sub-
merged, they are self-priming and can start at full capacity.
Vertical pumps are designed to be self-aligning due to
the rabbet t between pump and driver, thus eliminating the
need for precision shaft alignment. Notwithstanding these
advantages, this article will focus on the need for alignment
of vertical pumps.
Many assume that since the pump and driver have a rabbet
t that there is no misalignment. This is theoretically correct,
since the excellent machining of the mating surfaces suppos-
edly guarantees it. In practice, however, this is most often
not true. Misalignment occurs on this type of drive as often
as on horizontally mounted drive systems (Shaft Alignment
Handbook, 3rd Edition, John Piotrowski, pg. 678).
Aligning this equipment to precision alignment toler-
ances will produce the same benets that have long been
proven to occur with horizontal drive machines, such as
extended equipment life, increased efciency and reduced
vibration levels. With todays modern laser alignment sys-
tems, the process is greatly expedited, producing even greater
savings through reduced labor costs.
Consider the following when implementing an align-
ment program for vertical pumps.
Alignment Program Considerations
First, what technology will you use? Dial indicators have been
a tried and true method alignment method for many years but
have a steep learning curve and can be tedious under the best
circumstances. Typical dial indicators have a resolution of .0001
in, but some modern laser alignment systems have 1 micron
resolution. This resolution makes them extremely accurate
while greatly simplifying and speeding up the precision align-
ment process with easy-to-understand graphical results and
instructions that guide the user through the alignment process.
They also provide reporting and documentation capabilities.
Second, what are the radial clearances between the shaft
and the pump housing or support structure? If a laser-based
system is used, will the components and bracketing t?
Current laser alignment systems can function with as little as
Are Your Vertical Pumps
Throwing Money
Down the Drain?
Dennis Onken, LUDECA, Inc.
Figure 1. Motor ange setup screen from a laser tool for a
vertical pump alignment application.
Figure 2. Results screen with shim corrections for ange bolt
locations from a laser tool.
3 in of radial clearance from the shaft and 90 deg rotation.
Third, has the pump ever been precision-aligned? With a vertical drive applica-
tion, shimming at the drivers ange bolts corrects angular misalignment and sets
the pump shaft and driver shaft parallel. Once the shafts are parallel, moving the
driver laterally corrects for offset misalignment. This may require that the typi-
cally tight rabbet t clearances meant to ensure proper alignment be machined and
opened to allow for movement of the driver relative to the pump. This is often the
case on vertical pump applications and can be accomplished by either machining
the driver ange, or machining the pump housing or support structure ange.
Another consideration is what coupling type is used. Vertical applications that
use exible style couplings are the most straightforward. Multistage vertical turbine
pumps have rigid type couplings. When installed, this coupling type not only trans-
fers torque from the driver to the pump, but it is also adjusted axially to lift the
entire pump shaft assembly to set the impeller clearances in the bowl. Once the
proper lift is set for impeller clearances, the coupling is assembled and becomes rigid.
In other words, there is no ex once the coupling is installed. Even these types of
alignments can be expedited in a timely manner with some of todays laser systems.
Cardan shafts are a popular coupling choice for vertical applications in the
water industry. Cardan shafts differ from conventional couplings in that they have
a u-joint on either end of the coupling spacer and can accommodate large offsets
between pump and driver. They function just like the drive shaft on an automobile.
What is critical in cardan shaft alignment is the angularity at each ex plane, not
offset. The pump and driver shaft must be parallel, but have intentional offsets to
create angles at the u-joints to ensure proper lubrication of the needle bearings in
the u-joint. With the use of cardan type brackets, even this typically difcult align-
ment is expedited with modern laser alignment systems.
Conclusion
Typical industries that use vertical pumps include oil reneries, water treatment plants,
pond lift station pumps and paper mills. Some cooling towers also feature vertical pump
applications. The commitment to implement precision laser alignment of vertical pump
applications can be justied in part by the positive feedback and benets of similar suc-
cessful programs for horizontal drive applications. It must have the support of manage-
ment and properly trained personnel, and involve the right laser alignment system.
Everyone involved in implementing a precision vertical alignment program
must understand that modications may have to be made to existing equipment
before the alignment can be effected. Rabbet ts may need to be machined to
increase clearances and allow for offset misalignment correction. When a motor
or pump that has not been previously laser aligned goes for repairs, the rabbet ts
should be machined to increase clearances so that eventual alignment corrections
can be made. Jacking bolts should also be installed on the support structure in the
four chosen cardinal directions to facilitate the alignment process.
The benets of precision alignment of vertical pump applications far outweigh
the initial cost of the preparation needed to allow for necessary alignment correc-
tions. This initial cost is typically a one-time event, unless the driver or pump hous-
ing rabbet ts are rebuilt or equipment is replaced. Increased equipment life means
less unscheduled downtime. A smoother running machine means greater efciency
and energy savings. This alone can justify precision alignment of vertical pumps.
How much money are poorly aligned vertical machines costing you?
P&S
Dennis Onken is an application specialist and instructor at LUDECA. He has more
than 31 years of heavy industrial experience primarily in the oil, gas and power
generation industries, and 15 plus years directly related to alignment of rotating
equipment. He can be reached at 305-591-8935 or Dennis.Onken@ludeca.com.
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Know
the ow.
Skip
the meter.
Think about ITT.
You probably know
that PumpSmart

prevents failures,
improves pump
reliability and greatly
reduces energy and
maintenance costs.
But did you know
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measurement for
thousands of dollars less than a
ow meter? One more reason
smart plant managers are
choosing PumpSmartthe
intelligent pumping solution.
View our Sensorless Flow video
at www.ittmc.com, or call
1-800-734-7867.
PumpSmart
The Challenge
A
t their simplest, metering pumps are used to inject
liquids at precisely controlled, adjustable ow rates,
which is a process called metering. As dened by the
Hydraulic Institutes Metering Pump Section, controlled-
volume metering pumps are reciprocating, positive displace-
ment pumps typically used for the injection of chemical
additives, proportional blending of multiple components or
metered transfer of a single liquid.
Metering pumps pump chemical solutions and expen-
sive additives for products manufactured in a wide variety
of industries, including industrial, medical, chemical, food
and dairy, pharmaceutical and biotech, environmental, fuel
cell and laboratory. Metering pumps are designed to pump
into low or high discharge pressures at controlled ow rates
that are constant when averaged over time. Metering pumps
consist of a solenoid drive or a gearbox with motor, control
mechanism and pump head with valves to control the ow
direction through which the liquid pumped enters the inlet
connection and exits the discharge connection.
Since liquids are only slightly compressible, they can be
discharged at high pressure by metering pumps. Gases, on
the other hand, are much more compressible, making them
incompatible with metering pump use. Therefore, problems
can occur in a metering pump application when gas bubbles
enter the pump head. When this happens, the pump can
suffer from vapor lock, in which the pump will stop pump-
ing the liquid that contains gas bubbles while repeatedly
compressing and decompressing the bubbles.
Another challenge in the use of metering pumps can
occur when the pumps outlet pressure is lower than the inlet
pressure. When this situation arises, both check valves will
open simultaneously and the liquid will ow through the
pump head uncontrollably from inlet to outlet. A properly
rated pressure-differential check valve placed downstream of
the pump will arrest this undesirable ow condition.
Despite these concerns, metering pumps remain ver-
satile, relied-upon technologies for the safe, accurate and
efcient injection of a unique array of chemicals up to
20,000 cps and slurries containing up to 10 percent solids.
This article will help the user dene the variables to evaluate
when choosing and installing the proper metering pump or
complete chemical-feed system. Choosing the proper system
will not only help inject liquids or slurries regardless of
viscosity, but also ensure that it is done
in an efcient, environmen-
tally friendly and energy-wise
manner.
The Solution
Size does matter
when determining the
proper metering pump
for an application
specically, the size in
terms of capacity of
both the pumps ow rate
and discharge pressure. Simply
put, metering
pumps should not
be oversized. In
fact, a
Metering Expectations
Tom ODonnell
Choosing the correct metering pump will ensure that
liquids are injected in the most precise, efcient,
environmentally friendly and energy-conscious manner.
Efciency Matters
metering pump should be sized so that its maximum expected ow rate is 85 to 90
percent of the pumps capacity, which leaves additional capacity, if needed. At the
other end of the spectrum, a metering pumps minimum capacity should never be
less than 10 percent of the capacity; anything less will affect the pumps accuracy.
Determining the proper ow rate and discharge pressure cannot be done until
the types of substances to be pumped are identied per the application, including
the viscosity of the liquid or if it is a slurry. Standard metering pumps handle clear
liquids with viscosities generally ranging from waterwhich has a viscosity around
1 cpsto 1,500 cps. Special liquid ends for applications outside this viscosity
range are available for viscosities up to 5,000 cps. When considering true slurries or
liquids with even higher viscosities, special tubular diaphragm heads are compat-
ible with viscosities to 20,000 cps and slurries that contain 10 percent solids.
Materials of construction are another consideration. When selecting a meter-
ing pump, consider any corrosion, erosion or solvent action that may occur when
handling specic substances. For example, solvents may dissolve plastic-headed
pumps, acids and caustics are only compatible with stainless steel or certain steel
alloys, and abrasive slurries can erode some materials. The best metering pump
lines are available in a range of construction materials, allowing the end user to
choose the best option for his specic applications.
When considering the type of head the pump should feature, remember that
double-diaphragm heads with leak detection and alarm capabilities are available
Planning a Metering Pump Installation
A metering pump installation must be planned from the day tank or liquid source
up to the injection point. Remember that metering pumps will push against great
pressures but they will not pull for great distances. Since it is easier to prime and
more forgiving, a ooded suction is always preferred, and must be used for uids
where vapor pressure might be less than the suction lift.
Be careful to limit the suction to 4 ft in a suction-lift application, and a foot
valve must be used in a top-mount application. Limit the length of a ooded suc-
tion to 6 or 7 ft and use an adequately sized line with minimized bends, elbows
or other restrictions. When considering the piping, the safest rule-of-thumb for
selecting suction pipe size is to use one size larger than the pump suction connec-
tion. For discharge piping, specify piping suitable for the discharge pressure.
Other accessories to consider when planning a metering pump installation
include:
Suction strainer
Flanges, unions or compression ttings
Isolation valves
Calibration column
Relief valve
Back pressure valve
Pressure gauge
Pulsation dampener
Injection quill and check valve
Remember that when replacing equipment or changing chemical programs,
it is best to ask questions. Will the new program operate at the same feed rates
as the previous one? Is the equipment properly sized for the new products? How
well has the equipment been operating? Any problems with reliability, accuracy
or unusually high maintenance requirements? There is no better start to a new
chemical-feed program than to ensure that the chemical is delivered accurately
with trouble-free equipment.
1461 Ford Street, Suite 205
Redlands, CA 92373
Tel: 909-512-1257
Fax: 909-798-1879
Info@pumpsg.com
pumpsg.com
Metering Pumps
204 DeKalb Pike
Lansdale, PA 19446
215-699-8700
neptune1.com
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Efciency Matters
for applications where any diaphragm failure must be sensed
immediately.
Selecting a driver is also an area of concern. A driver
should be chosen by matching it to the available utilities, which
usually include electric, air, gas or other means of driving the
pump. When the pumps parameters are determined, consider
the environment in which the pump will operate. Hazardous
area requirements must be identied when selecting the driver.
When evaluating a hazardous environment, remember to con-
sider dust, which can ignite, just like fumes or vapors.
Will the pump be used indoors or outdoors? If it is
located outdoors, it should be sheltered from direct sunlight.
For temperature requirements, most pumps will operate in
freezing conditions, provided that the pumped uid will not
freeze and that the correct lubricants are
selected. In this case, freeze protection
and heat-tracing may be required, while
operation in corrosive environments
may require special pump coatings.
Determining the pumps control
method is next on the list of determin-
ing factors. The choices usually include
manual continuous operation, on/off
operation or automatic proportional
control in response to a process signal.
In general, metering pump ow
rates can be manually adjusted with
a micrometer dial. This manual con-
trol allows the pump to be operated
between 10 and 100 percent of capacity
by changing the stroke length. By com-
parison, a manual variable speed drive
changes the stroke speed. A combina-
tion of the two may allow additional
adjustability or turndown over the range
of the drive, depending on the pumps
stroking speed. For example, a pump
operating at 75 strokes per minute
(which could be decreased to 15 spm)
would allow a 5:1 turndown on speed
when using the variable speed drive and
a 10:1 turndown on stroke length when
using the micrometer dial.
Metering pump ow rates can also
be controlled automatically (in response
to a process signal) by electric position-
ers that change the pumps stroke length,
or by variable speed drives that alter
the stroking speed. Using a positioner
gives the operator a full 10:1 turndown,
which is the full adjustable range. Using
a variable speed drive will supply only
as much turndown as the ratio of the
pump stroking speed divided by the
pumps minimum operating speed.
Remember that it is not practical
to use a variable speed drive on motor-
driven pumps that normally operate at
less than 100 spm to 150 spm. Slowing
the motor causes each stroke to take
longer from start to nish and, as a
practical matter, motor-driven pumps
should not be operated at less than 15
spm. Electronic diaphragm pumps,
which are pulsed by a solenoid, can
operate at less than a single stroke per
minute because the characteristic and
timing of each stroke, from start to
nish, is the same at all stroking speeds.
The moving parts in modern diaphragm
pumps offer long, reliable service at all
stroking speeds. The highest stroking
A driver should be chosen by matching
it to the available utilities, which usually
include electric, air, gas or other means
of driving the pump.
RedaHPS* horizontal multistage centrifugal pumps have proved to be
a viable, cost-effective alternative to API-610 split case pumps. Quick
delivery and reduced inventory, maintenance, and life cycle costs are
standard benefits when choosing RedaHPS pumps.
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Pressure to 6,600 psi
Power to 2,500 hp
Full functional testing
The powerful surface pumping system that delivers.
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HORIZONTAL SURFACE
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Multistage centrifugal
pumps you can count on
speeds should be avoided with viscous or abrasive chemicals.
When automatic or electric stroke positioners control a metering pump, the
number of doses remains constant and the dose size is reduced, thus keeping the
doses uniformly distributed in a constantly owing line. Use of a variable speed
drive changes the stroke speed, while the size of the dose injected on each stroke
remains the same, but makes the doses less frequent. This, however, can produce an
undesirable process result in a constantly owing line as the discreet slugs of chemi-
cal are more widely separated than if a constant dose interval were maintained.
Finally, consider the application and quality level. Is the unit used for inter-
mittent operation in an HVAC or light-duty application where economy is an
important consideration? Is the unit for an industrial plant/waste-treatment facil-
ity/renery/power plant where ruggedness and additional features are required? Is
initial cost or life cycle cost more important?
P&S
Tom ODonnell is senior product specialist for Lansdale, PA-based Neptune
Chemical Pump Co. (www.neptune1.com), an operating company with the
Pump Solutions Group (PSG). He can be reached at todonnell@neptune1.
com or 215-699-8700. PSG (www.pumpsg.com) is comprised of Wilden
,
Blackmer
, Griswold, Neptune, Almatec
and Mouvex
.
Slowing the motor causes each
stroke to take longer from start to
finish and, as a practical matter,
motor-driven pumps should not be
operated at less than 15 spm.
Efciency Matters
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See Simerics at Pump
Users Symposium
Booth #107
D
o you have a large rotating drum that cannot keep a
vacuum, or a pump that uses an exorbitant amount
of water annually just to keep the packing operat-
ing satisfactorily? What about a problematic ange joint?
This article will show three examples of how compres-
sion packing can solve these difcult sealing problems.
Sealing a Large Rotating Drum
Problem
In a paper mill bleaching and rinsing process, a 12 ft diam-
eter drum washer is designed to maintain a vacuum to pull
water from the paper stock. The drum rotates at about 5
rpm and handles acidic bleach chemicals that are off the pH
scale. The temperature is 160 deg F. Seals are required at
both ends of the drum.
Anyone who has tried to seal a vacuum knows that
nature abhors a vacuum. In addition, the old drum washer
wobbles as it turns, so that vacuum is even more likely to
be lost.
The packing needed to address these problems, includ-
ing corrosive chemicals, moderate temperatures, imperfect
rotation (run-out) and the need to maintain a vacuum.
Solution: Energized Compression Packing
The packing manufacturers application specialist consid-
ered all factors and offered lubricated PTFE packing to
withstand the corrosive media and temperature. The more
difcult problem was how to maintain positive contact with
the sealing surface to achieve a reliable seal. All packing has
some degree of resilience, which is a property more asso-
ciated with rubber, but PTFE packing is not particularly
resilient.
A novel packing system was designed to create resil-
ience and maintain positive seal contact as the drum wob-
bled through its rotations. An inatable polymeric hose was
installed behind the PTFE packing. The air pressure inside
the hose added the needed resilience, enabling the packing
to track the drum surface as it rotated (see Figure 1).
How Can Packing Solve My Sealing Problem?
This months Sealing Sense was prepared by FSA Members
Jim Drago, Chris Boss, Rex Carriker and Phil Mahoney
From the voice of the uid sealing industry
SEALING SENSE
Figure 1. Vacuum drum washer packing system
Figure 2. Hose with braided PTFE tape
This prospective solution, however, introduced a new
problemthe hoses chemical compatibility. The strong
bleach could degrade the hose, causing it to fail. Compression
packing fabrication technology provided the solution, and the
hose was wrapped with PTFE tape (see Figure 2).
An effective wrapping could only be done with a com-
pression packing braider. The tape was wrapped using a round
braider, equipment common to any compression packing
manufacturer. An added benet of the solution to this tan-
gential problem was that the burst strength of the tubing
increased, allowing higher pressures that improved the seals
quality and life.
Result
The result was a long-lasting seal that held a vacuum under less
than perfect conditions.
Excessive Usage of Water and Energy
with Flush for Packing
Problem
The pumps in a paper mill move condensate; circulate uids,
feed stocks and chemical liquors; and transfer bleach stock.
Many of the uids are mixed with abrasive solids that shorten
packing life. Mechanical seals are often not suited for the abra-
sive uids and worn equipment. The frequent replacement
of packing adds the burden of additional packing purchases,
labor hours to repack and lost production due to downtime.
Each pump handling abrasive uids uses 4 gpm to
ush destructive abrasives from the packing. This equates to
2,100,000 gallons/year/pump of wasted water into the pumped
uid. Additionally, energy is wasted to remove unwanted water
from the media stream.
A paper mill, which contains many pumps, needed a solu-
tion to conserve the costly resources of water and energy.
Solution: Enhanced Compression Packing System
Given these issues, another packing solution may seem coun-
terintuitive. However, there are packing systems specically
designed to work in abrasive uids and reduce water consump-
tion. An engineered combination of braided carbon ber,
braided exible graphite, lantern rings and ush water ow
controls combine to achieve the desired result. The graphite
materials have low friction to accommodate a spinning pump
shaft with little uid to cool it. The lantern ush ring and ush
controls keep out abrasives and keep the packing cool enough
to operate with a long life.
Result
With installation of the updated packing system, the ush
water required dropped to 0.5 gpm. The water savings
amounted to 1,840,000 gallons/year/pump. An added benet
was less energy was wasted removing the water from the system
media.
Sealing Sense is produced by the Fluid Sealing Association
as part of our commitment to industry consensus technical
education for pump users, contractors, distributors, OEMs
and reps. As a source of technical information on sealing
systems and devices, and in cooperation with the European
Sealing Association, the FSA also supports development of
harmonized standards in all areas of uid sealing technology.
The education is provided in the public interest to enable a
balanced assessment of the most effective solutions to pump
systems technology issues on rational Total Life Cycle Cost
(LCC) principles.
The Compression Packing Division of the FSA is one
of six with a specic product technology focus. As part of
their mission they develop publications such as the recently
published joint FSA/ESA Compression Packing Technical
Manual and the Pump &Valve Packing Installation Procedures
pamphlets. These are primers intended to complement the
more detailed manufacturers documents produced by the
member companies. In addition to English some are avail-
able in a number of other languages, including Spanish and
German.
The following members of the Compression
Packing Division sponsor this Sealing Sense series:
A. W. Chesterton Co.
Carbon Etc.
Daikin America, Inc.
DuPont Performance Elastomers L.L.C.
Empak Spirotallic Mexicana SA de CV
Garlock Sealing Technologies
W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc.
GrafTech International Holdings, Inc.
Greene, Tweed & Co. /Palmetto, Inc.
John Crane
Latty International S.A.
Leader Global Technologies
Lenzing Plastics GmbH
Nippon Pillar Corporation of America
SEPCO - Sealing Equipment Products Co.
SGL Technic Polycarbon Division
Slade, Inc.
Teadit International
Teijin Aramid USA, Inc.
YMT/Inertech, Inc.
Problematic Flange Joint
Problem
In a coal-red power plantthe domain of spiral wound and
fabricated metal gasketsa 50-year-old gate valve was leaking
steam at 1,020 deg F and 2,350 psi at its bonnet joint. The
valves bonnet ange sealing surface was worn, irregular, cut
and scratched. The groove that received the gasket was uni-
form, but its depth now varied from 0.040 in to 0.120 in.
Traditional gaskets would not seal due to expansion during
thermal cycling and required frequent retightening or replace-
ment (see Figure 3).
Solution: Compression Packing
Yes, braided packing works for a angenot just for pumps
and valve stems. A braid composed of exible graphite and
carbon ber was installed in the groove of the valves bonnet
joint. The packings ability to easily conform to surface imper-
fections and withstand high temperatures and pressures made
it the best solution for the surfaces of the irregular ange.
Result
The bonnet joint was sealed, did not require re-tightening
when thermally cycled and lasted longer than traditional
gasket solutions.
Conclusion
The conformability, exibility and wide range of material
combinations and designs enable packing to seal many dif-
cult, unconventional applications. These capabilities, coupled
with other packing systems components, can provide effective
sealing solutions that reduce the con-
sumption of valuable water and energy
resources.
If you have a sealing problem, con-
sider a discussion with your packing
manufacturer.
For more information on this topic see
the following sections in the newly pub-
lished FSA-ESA Compression Packing
Technical Manual: How packing works,
Valve packing types, Pump packing types,
Specialty equipment packing, Advances in
compression packing, Protocol for proper
packing selection and Denition and uses
of compression packing.
Next Month: What are the basics for
applying expansion joints?
We invite your questions on sealing issues
and will provide best efforts answers based
on FSA publications. Please direct your
questions to: sealingsensequestions@uid-
sealing.com.
P&S
Figure 3. Problem valve bonnet joint
FSA Sealing Sense
Self-leveling, adjustable and reusable
chocks for all rotating machinery.
The Vibracon is an economical chocking
system that eliminates softfoot while
in the production line and for the life
cycle of pumps and their drivers.
Machine Support, Inc.
Houma - LA Houston - TX
985-851-5100 vibracon-usa@machinesupport.com

www. ma c hi ne s uppor t . c om
Q. We have an application for pumps handling hot oil at
700 deg F. What special care should we take in selecting
and installing such pumps?
A. Pumps for handling oils within the range of 150 deg C to
450 deg C (300 deg F to 850 deg F) are commonly termed hot
oil pumps.
It is important that sufcient NPSH be available, as the
liquid is almost always near the boiling point.
Provision should be made to allow self-venting of vapors
from the impeller eye by venting the suction eye of the rst
stage except where the suction nozzle is in a vertical upward
position. The stufng boxes and bearing housings should be
provided with cooling jackets.
The glands should be of the smothering type. If pack-
ing conditions require seal oil, lantern ringstogether with
the necessary pipe connectionsshould be provided. During
operation, the seal oil pressure in the lantern ring should be
held to a minimum of 175 kPa (25 psi) above stufng-box pres-
sure. Mechanical seals must be chosen specically for the oil,
temperature, pressure and speed.
The materials used for the construction of hot oil pumps
should have a uniform coefcient of expansion and should be
selected with particular reference to the oils corrosive nature, as
well as the actual pumping temperature.
Due to the high pumping temperature, the pump support
should be arranged in such a manner to permit expansion of
the pump casing without adversely affecting the coupling
alignment.
API Standard 610 Centrifugal Pumps for General Renery
Service may be used for more information.
It is important that the suction and discharge piping be
supported to avoid pipe strains imposed on pump nozzles. The
unit must be aligned at the operating temperature.
Q. Are there guidelines for the basic speed ratings for
reciprocating power pumps?
A. Yes. However, conditions of installation and variations in
design signicantly inuence the selection of speed. The values
in Table 1 are intended to serve as guidelines for basic speed
ratings based on pumping cold water.
For an intermediate stroke length, speed may be
interpolated.
Note that these speeds are intended only as reference
points. Some manufacturers offer their pumps for operation at
or above these basic speeds. Others recommend lower speeds.
When a pump originally designed for low viscosity liq-
uids is used for liquids of higher viscosity, basic pump speed
reduction is necessary to obtain proper valve dynamics and
prevent liquid separation. When viscosity ranges from 65 to
6,500 mm
2
/s (300 to 30,000 SSU), Figure 6.46 should be used
to determine the appropriate reduction in basic speed. Only
PUMPFAQs
Table 1
Single-acting plunger-type power pump
Stroke length Basic speed
mm in rpm
50 2 750
75 3 530
100 4 420
125 5 360
150 6 315
175 7 290
200 8 262
Double-acting piston-type power pumps
Stroke length Basic speed
Mm in rpm
50 2 140
100 4 115
150 6 100
200 8 90
250 10 83
300 12 78
350 14 74
400 16 70
pumps specically designed for high viscosity service should be
used for liquids with viscosities above 6,500 mm
2
/s (30,000
SSU). See Section 6.3.2 in ANSI/HI 6.1-6.5 Reciprocating
Power Pumps for details on the calculation of liquid velocity
through valves.
Q. I understand that rotary pumps perform well when
handling viscous liquids. How does the performance
change as the liquid viscosity increases?
A. A pumped uids viscosity typically affects pump ratings
as follows:
The net positive inlet pressure required (NPIPR) increases
with increasing viscosity, as shown in Figure A.
The required pump input power (Pp) increases with
increasing viscosity, as shown in Figure B.
Figure 6.46
Figure A
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HI Pump FAQs
The maximum allowable pump speed (n) decreases with
increasing viscosity.
The pump slip (S), as shown in Figure C, decreases with
increasing viscosity.
Exercise care in applying these generalities to non-Newto-
nian uids, as the viscosity may change within the pump due
to shear. When the apparent viscosity of a non-Newtonian uid
can be determined, then these generalities can be applied.
Because the exact relationship between viscosity and pump
ratings depends on the pump design and on the application
conditions, refer to the pump manufacturers published data for
a particular pump, or consult the manufacturer when consider-
ing viscous uid pump applications.
Energy put into a uid to overcome resistance to shear
causes a nite temperature rise of the uid. Consult manu-
facturers for recommendations on rotary pump applications
involving uids that are shear- or temperature-sensitive.
For more information about rotary pumps, see HI
Standard, ANSI/HI 3.1-3.5 Rotary Pumps for Nomenclature,
Denitions, Application and Operation.
R
a
t
e

o
f

f
l
o
w
Actual flow
at 7 bar
Figure B
Figure C
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mill outages. To perform in these extreme duty conditions, GIW introduces a new MDX pump line.
Using the latest materials technology and hydraulic design, GIW MDX pumps are built to extend pump operating
cycles under varying conditions typical of mill circuit applications. Fewer unscheduled outages and more up time
translates into increased production and protability. Contact your local GIW Representative to learn how GIW
MDX pumps can increase your mill productivity.
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ROCK SOLID MILL DUTY SOLUTIONS
A KSB Company
Q. We are operating several centrifugal pumps on a
water supply system. After one year of operation,
the underside of the impeller blades exhibits pitting
damage. The NPSH available (NPSHA) in the
system is higher than the NPSH required (NPSHR)
by the pump. What is causing this problem?
A. Cavitation typically causes such damage. NPSHA
often must be greater than NPSHR by a factor of about
two times or more to suppress the formation of cavitation
bubbles.
Testing determines a pumps NPSHR to be that NPSH
when the total head developed by the pump is reduced
by 3 percent due to the blockage in the impeller by the
cavitation bubbles. The complete elimination of cavitation
bubbles may take NPSHA values as high as ve times the
NPSHR.
When pitting damage occurs, and the NPSHA cannot
be increased, impellers made of more pitting resistant
material may solve the problem. The results from research conducted by Cooper and
Antunes have been tabulated in Figure D for some typical impeller materials.
P&S
CA15 S.Steel 410BHN
Aluminum Bronze
Titanium
CF8M Stainless
CA15 Stainless
CB7 Stainless
Monel
Ni-Resist
Manganese Bronze
Carbon Steel
Aluminum
Tin Brz. (Gun Metal)
Cast Iron
Low Relative Resistance High
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Note: Rate of wear due to cavitation erosion increases with increased temperature.
Figure D. Relative resistance table
Pump FAQs
is produced by the
Hydraulic Institute as a service to pump
users, contractors, distributors, reps and
OEMs as a means of ensuring a healthy
dialogue on subjects of common techni-
cal concern.
HI standards are adopted in the
public interest and are designed to help
eliminate misunderstandings between
the manufacturer, the purchaser and/or
the user and to assist the purchaser in
selecting and obtaining the proper prod-
uct for a particular need.
As an ANSI approved standards
developing organization, the Hydraulic
Institute process of developing new stan-
dards or updating current standards
requires balanced input from all mem-
bers of the pump community.
We invite your questions and will
endeavor to provide answers based on
existing HI standards and technical
guidelines. Please direct your inquiries
to: pumpquestions@pumps.org.
For more information about HI,
our publications, Pump LCC Guide,
Energy Saving Video-based educa-
tion program and standards please
visit: www.pumps.org. Also visit our
new e-learning portal with a com-
prehensive course on Centrifugal
Pumps: Fundamentals, Design and
Applications, which can be found at:
www.pumplearning.org.
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2010 Vibralign, Inc.
Contact VibrAlign today to see how fast alignment can be.
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Shaft Alignment
Rental Pumps, Tools & Equipment
W
hen dealing with a reputable provider, renting
can provide all the advantages of having a pre-
mium piece of equipment, without the costs or
responsibilities of ownership. When a pump needs service or
repairs, the rental provider does them. Businesses no longer
have to worry about how to dispose of a unit at the end of
its usable life. A wide assortment of reliable rental equipment
can be delivered to a jobsite quickly, giving convenient access
to the right equipment for almost any task.
State of the Industry2010 Outlook
With the economic challenges the United States faced in
2009, 2010 will continue to be the time for companies to
consider renting versus owning.
Businesses continue to look for ways to cut back and
minimize their expenses. Fewer companies are willing to
spend the necessary amount of money to expand their eet
or purchase new equipment, especially when older, less reli-
able machines are still part of their overhead. With credit
more difcult to obtain, companies want to avoid having any
asset not used on a regular basis on their books.
Renting is a great option for those who need a specic
pump for one phase of a project but do not foresee getting
that much use out of the equipment in the long run, said
Robert Dotson, western regional manager, RSC Equipment
Rental Pump and Power Division. Even in cases where they
think they may use it frequently, it is worth comparing the
cost of renting versus owning the equipment.
The Importance of Green Accountability
As we enter an age of greater transparent accountability for
climate change, rental companies are providing innovative
solutions for pump users to meet new equipment emission
standards.
Newer equipment units such as Tier 3 options are gener-
ally cleaner-burning and more fuel efcient, so when renting
pumping solutions, it helps to deal with rental providers who
have a younger eet and are knowledgeable about environ-
mentally friendly options. It also makes a big difference if
their units have been properly maintained and serviced.
When Renting Makes Sense
For users, renting offers independence to accomplish things
that were out of reach before the right equipment was avail-
able and affordable.
Renting makes sense when a business would rather
accomplish something than add to its possessions, when a
tool or pump solution will be used once (or just once in a
while), when storage space is tight, when the purchase price
is high and when money has to stretch. Rental equipment
has another intrinsic advantageit is generally more power-
ful, better built and more thoroughly tested than equivalent
products offered for sale to consumers. Rental tough equip-
ment is contractor quality or professional-vendor quality. It is
designed to do an outstanding job.
Furthermore, because industrial equipment is such a
When It Makes More
Sense to Rent Pumps
Heather Schlichting, RSC Equipment Rental
Renting the right pump for a project may
improve a companys bottom line.
large investment, many companies are forced to keep an asset that becomes devalued
quickly and pay for the storage and maintenance of infrequently used equipment. In
contrast, rental eets have an average lifespan of just ve years, making them younger,
less prone to problems and more environmentally sound, letting out fewer emissions
than older diesel engines.
Rental companies have taken the rental equipment industry beyond just machinery,
adding benets that are beyond cost. Portable trailers custom-stocked with specialized
tools and small equipment are available for short-term projects. Onsite maintenance
prevents costly downtime and increases productivity. Software allows users to manage
their eet, costs, time and rental spend more efcientlyall issues that are particularly
important to long-term projects with large job sites.
How Renting Affects the Bottom Line
Renting equipment provides a tremendous economic benet to users. Renting a pump
solution means spending money only when and where the equipment is needed. If
equipment sits idle, it can be expensive. Renting equipment also means getting the best
equipment for the job, because the type of pump needed and when it is needed can be
specied.
Working with rented equipment can even simplify bidding and billing processes.
The rental invoice is the only accountable cost gure.
P&S
Heather Schlichting is communications specialist at RSC Equipment Rental, 6929 E.
Greenway Parkway Suite 200, Scottsdale, AZ 85254, Phone: 480-905-3341, Fax:
480-905-3400, Heather.Schlichting@RSCrental.com, www.RSCrental.com.
The Top 12 Reasons
for Renting
1. Control ExpensesRenting
provides signicant savings over
buying to improve the bottom
line.
2. Inventory ControlExtra equip-
ment is available when needed, so
equipment inventory remains at a
minimum.
3. The Right Equipment for the
JobRenting lets businesses t
the type and size of equipment to
the job for economy and safety.
4. 24/7 Customer CareDay or
night, businesses can reach dedi-
cated customer service representa-
tives who can access their account
and resolve any problem quickly.
5. Save On Storage/Warehousing
Eliminating the need for large
equipment storage areas and build-
ings can signicantly reduce costs.
6. Reduce DowntimeIf equip-
ment breaks down, the rental
provider will x it efciently so the
job crew can keep working.
7. No Costly Repairs Or Upkeep
The rental provider can take care
of the equipments maintenance,
so a repair shop, spare parts inven-
tory, mechanics or extra staff are
not needed to take care of inven-
tory maintenance records.
8. Save Disposal CostsBusinesses
will not need to spend the time
and money preparing, advertising
and selling used equipment.
9. Cost ControlRenting simplies
bidding and billing, so the rental is
the only accountable cost.
10. Equipment TrackingThe
presence of continuous billing
on rented equipment establishes
personal accountability.
11. Less Hassle With LicensesSave
time on equipment licensing and
registration costs and paperwork.
12. Conserve CapitalRent needed
equipment and use capital for
other, potentially more protable,
ventures.
I
n many cases, users rent pumps to help them meet
specic project requirements. The user does not
always want to purchase a pump because he may
not have the knowledge, manpower or time to service
and maintain it properly, so renting is an option.
A rental can also come to the rescue when a cus-
tomers pump eet has already been committed and/
or additional pumps are neededfor instance, during
emergency repair situations. Even for customers who
ultimately plan to purchase a pump, rentals offer a
way to try before you buy. Other benets of renting
include the ability to use the latest technology and the
knowledge that an authorized dealer has maintained
and serviced the rental equipment.
Time and money are valuable on a joband when
both are in short supply, equipment rental can be the
Maximizing Your Rental
Experience
Kirsten Petersen Stroud and Robert Thompson, Thompson Pump & Manufacturing Co., Inc.
Tips for ensuring a positive pump rental experience.
Information to Gather Before You Rent
1. What needs to be accomplished with the pump (the application)
2. What type of liquid will be pumpedbe specic about the liquid
and its properties
3. If any solid matter is in the liquid
4. The distance the liquid will be pumped
5. How quickly the liquid needs to be moved
6. Any special considerations or auxiliary equipment needed in the
jobsite environment
7. If noise is an issue
8. Type and size of hose or piping used
9. Where on the jobsite the pump will be placed
10. Where the liquid will be discharged
Three 16 in electric-driven self-priming primary pumps alongside four 12 in diesel drive backup sewage pumps perform in Sioux Falls, SD.
answer. It is important to rent wisely since the wrong pump
rental can waste both time and money.
In order to ensure that they get the right pump for the
job, pump rental customers need to be prepared to answer
many questions, and the rental company needs to be prepared
with answers.
Equipment rental centers need detailed, accurate infor-
mation about the applications ow, lift and pressure require-
ments. With this information, trained pump rental center per-
sonnel can provide the right pump and piping for a successful
job. Without detailed information and a knowledgeable staff,
a customer may end up with a pump that either cannot do the
job or cannot do it efciently.
The rental company should fully understand all the spe-
cics about the intended application before renting a pump.
The more information gathered, the more accurate the pump
recommendation.
Common pumps available for rental are standard cen-
trifugal, diaphragm, trash and submersible. The majority of
these pump types are within the sizes of 2 to 3 in and each is
designed for different applications. Table 1 is a general pump
selection table that identies which pump type is best suited
for a specic application.
Tip: A classic mistake is renting the least
expensive pump available. The best
overall value is usually not the cheapest
priced. Keep in mind that certain appli-
cations require certain pumps to perform
the job most effectively. For example,
discuss fuel consumption and efciency
with the pump rental provider.
A pump temporarily lowers the water level of a pond near
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Performance
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Upon identifying the pump type that best ts the applica-
tion, check the pump performance curve supplied by the pump
manufacturer. The pump performance curve shows the pumps
capabilities at different volumes and will match the correct size
pump to meet ow requirements. The rental center should be
able to supply these curves and explain them.
Do not forget accessoriespumps require certain accesso-
ries. A variety of sizes and lengths of suction and discharge hose
or pipe are required. Quality ttings to connect the equipment
properly are also required. Sound attenuated pumping units
may be necessary for noise-restricted applications such as those
in neighborhoods or near schools and hospitals.
Some equipment rental centers choose to specialize in
pump rentals and provide larger, portable pumps. These pumps
can be as large as 18 in in suction size diameter. With the avail-
ability of larger pumps with higher performances and enhanced
features, more complex applications can be tackled.
Renting pumps requires expertise and commitment and
that is why we choose our distributors and rental dealers very
carefully, says John Farrell, VP of Sales, Thompson Pump &
Manufacturing Co, Inc.
Pump renters agree there is no substitute for working with
an experienced rental company when analyzing plans and spec-
ications, anticipating challenges and ultimately deciding what
equipment is best for the application. A rental company plays
a key role with a successful pump rental. They should offer
prompt response to service calls and a proactive willingness to
help the customer overall.
With a variety of pumps and systems availableand a vari-
ety of applications in which a pump is usedit is no surprise
that a successful pump rental demands special attention from
the renter and supplier alike. In that case, everybody wins.
P&S
Kirsten Petersen Stroud is the marketing manager and
Robert Thompson is project manager for Thompson Pump,
4620 City Center Drive, Port Orange, FL 32129, 386-
767-7310, kpetersen@thompsonpump.com and rthomp-
son@thompsonpump.com, www.thompsonpump.com.
Tip: Keep in mind that a pump that is easy to
operate with user-friendly controls and gauges
requires less operator time and reduces costs.
Information to Gather Before You Rent
for Complex Pumping Jobs
In addition to the 10 questions in Information to Gather
Before You Rent, be sure to discuss these additional items:
1. The primary equipment (pumps)
2. Any standby equipment
3. Any pressure requirements for pumping the uid
4. Turnkey installation requirement
5. Fusion of piping required
6. Transportation/mobilization
7. Environmental concerns
8. Fueling
9. Maintenance
10. 24/7 pump watch required
11. Any special equipment features such as automatic
start/stop, monitoring, auto-notication and
telemetry
Application
End Suction Centrifugal Diaphragm Trash Submersible Positive Displacement
Abrasive Liquid X
Clear Liquid X X X X
Coffer Dams X X X X
Deep Wells X
Fast Seepage Ditch Water X X
High-Solid-Content Liquid X X X
Manholes X X X
Mucky Liquid X X X
Muddy Liquid X X X
Quarries X X X
Silt Water X X X
Slimy Liquid X X
Slow Seepage Ditch Water X X
Wellpoints or Underdrain X
Pump Type
Table 1. Pump Selection: What pump works best for a specic application
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FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF
Practice & Operations
C
onstructed in the 1960s
by Datang Corporation
and located in
Mengtougou, the Gaojing
Power Plant is one of the oldest
power plants in Beijing. For the
past 40 years, the Gaojing Power
Plant has supplied 6 X 100 MW/
hr of heat and electricity to local
communities and industries. In
2003, with increasing environ-
mental requirements from the
government, the plant started
using membrane technology to
reuse the blowdown from its
cooling towers as feed for its
eight boilers.
OMEX Environmental, a
wholly owned subsidiary of The
Dow Chemical Company, supplied three phases of a waste-
water reuse system with productivity of 60 m
3
/h, 150 m
3
/h
and 160 m
3
/h, respectively. In the second phase, an integrated
solution of ultraltration (UF), reverse osmosis (RO) and
electrodeionization (EDI) was applied; in the third phase, a
dual membrane process with UF and RO was adopted after
clarications.
Typical Compositions of the Cooling
Tower Blowdown
In May 2007, the source of cooling tower makeup was changed
from surface water to secondary efuent from the Gaobeidian
Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant. The waste stream
contained high hardness, alkalinity, SO
4
2-
and silicon dioxide,
which are typical characteristics of cooling tower blowdown.
In addition, the concentrations of different contaminants
varied substantially with seasons and cooling tower makeup
quality. The high scaling potential and unstable properties could
cause problems in the subsequent wastewater reuse systems.
Process Flow and Key Treatment Units
Figure 1 shows the process ow in the second phase reuse
system. The blowdown water was rst pumped into a multi-
media lter to remove suspended solids and reduce the tur-
bidity from more than 20 NTU to around 4 to 8 NTU. The
UF unit further decreased the turbidity to less than 0.4 NTU
and protected the subsequent RO unit from colloids, sus-
pended solids, bacteria and large molecular weight organics.
Reducing agents, anti-scalant and acid were then dosed
before the rst pass RO system, in which most of the dissolved
Water Reuse and
Energy Generation in
Gaojing Power Plant
Flora Tong, Dow Water & Process Solutions, Asia Pacic
How membrane technology was used to reuse
blowdown from cooling towers in a power plant.
Figure 1. Process ow of the second phase reuse system
Facility Capacity (m
3
/h) Capacity Per Train (m
3
/h) No. of Trains
MultimediaFilter 270 270 1
Disk Filter 235 117.5 2
UF 235 117.5 2
First PassRO 186 93 2
Second PassRO 167
83.5
2
EDI 150 75 2
Table 1. System information on unit operations of the second phase
solids and SiO
2
were removed. The permeate water from the
rst pass RO was then degasied, and the pH was increased to
9.5 by NaOH dosing before entering the second pass RO.
In the end, EDI was installed for nal demineralization
to meet the requirement of boiler makeup. The key treatment
units in the second phase reuse system are listed in Table 1.
Plant Performance
Figure 3 plots by time period the silt density index (SDI) of
the UF permeate for both phases of the reuse system. For the
third phase system, a constant SDI value less than three (usu-
ally around 2.5) indicated a good and stable UF operation per-
formance. In the second phase, however, the SDI value varied
from three to four, probably due to higher turbidity of the UF
inuent in the second phase. After approximately ve years of
operation, the UF membrane can still produce quality water
that meets the required RO feed water quality.
The salt rejection rate of the rst pass RO was stable
between 97 and 98 percent, while that of the second pass varied
from 71 to 93 percent (see Figure 4). This is due to the fact that
the conductivity of the second pass RO was as low as 40 to 80
s/cm. The conductivity is in many cases the most important
quality parameter of the product water. Since carbon dioxide
is not rejected by the membrane, it is present in the product
water, where it reacts to form carbonic acid and causes the
conductivity to increase. The passage of carbon dioxide can be
prevented by adjusting the feed water pH to RO to a value of
about 8.2. At this pH, most carbon dioxide is converted into
hydrogen carbonate, which the membrane rejects. The prob-
lem could also be solved by installing a degasier, as was the
case in the Gaojing Power Plant.
The recoveries of the two-pass RO systems were 75 per-
cent and 90 percent, respectively. For the second phase system
with EDI after the RO system, the efuent resistance increased
to above 14 M-cm.
UF could only remove a small portion of the organics,
with efuent COD
Mn
around 4 to 8 mg/L into the RO systems.
The rst pass RO unit was able to reduce COD level to below
2 mg/L, with rejection rate around 70 to 80 percent; however,
in the second pass, the RO unit almost could not remove any
more organics (see Figure 5). The organics that passed the rst
pass RO probably weighed less than the molecular weight cutoff
(MWCO) of the RO element.
NaOH was dosed in the rst pass RO efuent to increase
pH of the second pass RO inuent. It also helped to increase
silica rejection of the second pass RO (see Figure 6). The silica
level could be controlled below 10 parts per billion (ppb) in RO
permeate. EDI further reduced silica to less than 3 ppb.
Chemical Dosing and Cleaning Process
Oxidant dosed in UF inuent and backwash water to pre-
vent biological growth
Reduce agent dosed in RO feed to protect RO from oxida-
tion; dosage controlled by online ORP monitor
Anti-scalant dosed in RO feed to avoid CaCO
3
/CaSO
4
scaling
pH adjustment between rst and second pass RO
UF unit was backwashed every 30 minutes, with air scrub
every ve hours. Clean in place (CIP) was performed every
three months. RO unit was cleaned at pH 12 rst and then at
pH 2 at 30 deg C. The CIP frequency was once per month.
P&S
Flora Tong is an application development specialist for Dow
Water & Process Solutions, Asia Pacic, 936, Zhangheng
Road, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, Shanghai, China, +86
2138511671, ftong@dow.com, www.dow.com.
Figure 3. SDI of UF permeate (second and third phase)
Figure 4. Salt rejections of the RO units (second phase)
Figure 5. COD removal rate in RO system (second phase)
Figure 6. Silica rejections in second pass RO
Market Update
Executive Summary
W
hen assessing the vast chemical industry, it is usu-
ally not advisable to deal in generalities. However,
as a base for the markets examination, Beth Beloof
and Marianne Lines, authors of the recent book Transforming
Sustainability Strategy into Action: The Chemical Industry, pro-
vide a base for the markets examination: The impact of the
chemical industry is felt in every area of commerce, as chemi-
cals are ubiquitous in all value chains and affect all ecosystems,
no matter how seemingly pristine, on the planet.
That said, if we may indulge in one more generality, the
chemical market has seen better years than 2009. In fact, a
portend of the struggles that 2009 would bring was presented
in late 2008 by Trey Hamblet, vice president for chemical
processing for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas).
In a presentation in December 2008, Hamblet announced
that many of the chemical processing industrys 4,000 opera-
tional plantsreacting to the dire economic forecasts that
resulted from the September 2008 banking crisiswould
consider major cutbacks, closures and capacity consolida-
tion. Hamblet did predict, optimistically, that these actions
would only be instituted as a buffer against potentially crip-
pling shutdowns.
With that in mind, what is the state of the chemical
industry as 2009 fades into the rearview mirror? While the
economy did mandate belt-tightening across the board, most
rms were able to weather the economic stormwhich
appears to be modifyingbecause they had already begun to
incorporate sustainability.
Pumping Up the Bottom Line
In 1987, The World Commission on Environment and
Development dened sustainability as development that
meets the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This
corporate sustainability movement has gained momentum
in recent years as many facility managers, regardless of the
industry, have undertaken a top-to-bottom review of their
operations, through which they have identied inefciencies
and taken the appropriate steps to eliminate them.
This is crucial as it relates to the chemical industry.
Chemical manufacturing is precise with numerous formula-
tions needed to be constructed according to a specic pro-
cess. Industrial pumps play a major role in this manufactur-
ing process. According to the United States Department of
Energys Ofce of Energy Efciency and Renewable Energy
(EERE), the industrial sector consumes 33.6 percent of all
energy used in the United States. Various reports state that
pumping systemsthe second-most widely used machines
in the world after motorsaccount for anywhere between
27 and 33 percent of the total electricity used in the indus-
trial sector.
Realizing this, manufacturers of pumps used in chemi-
cal processing have begun to eliminate the inefciencies in
pump design that can drag down revenue and prots for
manufacturing clients. By offering technological improve-
ments in the following areas, pump manufacturers have pro-
vided their clients in the chemical market with the blueprint
for bottom-line-friendly sustainability in their operations.
Energy Use
Everybody is looking to cut energy costs. The following tech-
nological improvements, if used properly, can help a manu-
facturer lower a plants energy consumption:
More manufacturers are building pumps that incorporate
variable frequency drives (VFDs). These pumps use
electricity instead of hydraulics to create a system that
controls the rotational speed of the electric motor by
controlling the electrical power supplied to the motor.
A VFD requires low frequency and voltage to start,
and when it is running, the frequency and voltage are
increased at a controlled rate without the need for exces-
sive current.
If you have a size 10 foot, why would you buy size 13
shoes? Too often, plants install pumps that are larger than
necessary just in case. However, three or four years
Chemical Market
Update
Walter Bonnett, PSG
While the chemical industry had a trying 2009,
advances in pump technology signal a bright future.
down the road, too many are still using the same oversized
pumps although production data has shown that a smaller,
more energy-efcient pump will work as well. Pump size
does matter.
Manufacturers must identify and use technologies that are
inherently more energy efcient. For example, through the
use of a number of vanes that slide in or out of slots in the
pump rotor, positive-displacement sliding vane pumps
have proven more energy efcient than gear pumps.
The small breakdowns that seem inevitable in any extensive
pumping application affect revenue due to downtime and
repair costs. These maintenance expenses can be lessened,
however, if the correct type and size of pump is used for the
appropriate application. A little legwork at the beginning of
the process can usually eliminate some future headaches.
Walk into many plants andadmittedly in many cases by
necessitythe piping has not been optimally designed. Not
only can this be an eyesore, but inadequate air ow due
to poorly designed air systems can decrease efciency and
increase costs. Pumping technology that helps eliminate the
inefcient use of air will help the bottom line.
Environmental Concerns
The corporate-sustainability movement closely relates to the
green movement that dictates that all operations must be as
environmentally friendly as possible. While being energy ef-
cient is a key green component, safely handling the myriad prod-
ucts used in chemical processing is also a primary concern.
More pump manufacturers are developing technologies
that address the concerns associated with product handling.
One chief concern is a chemical spill polluting the environ-
ment, or creating a safety hazard for plant personnel. To assuage
these concerns, forward-thinking pump manufacturers are cre-
ating pumps that feature sealless construction. Pumps without
seals are less susceptible to leaks. Advances in sealless technol-
ogy are being incorporated into pumps that can handle the
strict requirements of chemical manufacturing.
Conclusion
While the chemical industry will always remain a major player
in the worlds economy, improvements in pump construction
and operation will optimize the industrys efciency.
P&S
Walter Bonnett is the director of global marketing for
Pump Solutions Group (PSG), Redlands, CA. He
can be reached at 909-512-1268 or walter.bonnett@
pumpsg.com. PSG (www.pumpsg.com) is comprised of six
pump companiesWilden
, Blackmer
, Griswold,
Neptune, Almatec
and Mouvex
.
ANSI/HI 9.6.4 Rotodynamic Pumps
State-of-the-Art
Vibration Standard New!
The revised 2009 edition now the normative vibration standard
for the pump industry!
Uses both metric (primary) and US customary (secondary) units
Introduces an icon system to help users recognize
various pump types and identify measurement locations
Provides values for optional factory tests and field tests for
most pump types
Provides allowable vibration values
for preferred and allowable operating
regions
Expanded appendix includes a
suggested vibration test report form,
vibration trouble-shooting chart, more
Plus updated vibration-related
information on a range of key topics
important to your business.
For more information and to order, visit:
eStore.Pumps.org
for Vibration Measurements and Allowable Values
Completely rewritten. Enhanced for clarity. Easier to use.
HYDRAULIC INSTITUTE
www.Pumps.org
Comprehensive Industry Coverage:
Positive Displacement Pumps
Centrifugal Pumps
Specialty & Other Pumps
Industrial Valves
Pneumatic & Hydraulic Valves
Custom Research
White Papers
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http://www.frost.com.
visit us on the web at www.frost.com
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Product Pipeline
Enclosed Full Port Inline Check Valves
Proco Products produces
the ProFlex 750, designed to
answer enclosed body check
valve requirements for slurry
applications. It requires no
external power sources, making
operation costs obsolete. The
valves unique design means there are no mechanical parts
to break down or wear, which reduces maintenance costs.
The ProFlex 750 easily allows ow of abrasive materials
such as raw sewage, sludge or slurries. The elastomer design
allows media to ow through without signicant head losses
and will seal around solids trapped in the valve.
Circle 221 or go to psfreeinfo.com
Tank Monitoring
Nitz Associates, Inc. announces its
TankMeter 1000 Series, which non-
intrusively determines pre-charge pressure,
liquid volume and gas pressure inside
any tank. It is ideal for fuel, oil and water
systems because the tank does not need to
be taken off-line, drained or weighed. The
TankMeter has a handheld Wireless Remote
Display that automatically and wirelessly synchronizes tank
information up to a range of 200 ft. It holds more than
1,000 readings per tank and stores data on over 200 tanks
simultaneously. TankSoft software is ideal for archiving
readings and plotting trend lines.
High Pressure Tubing
Innovative Pressure
Technologies (IPT) intro-
duces High Pressure Tubing.
This tubing provides good resistance
to organic acids at high concentrations and
moderate temperatures, to inorganic acids (e.g.,
phosphoric and sulfuric) at moderate concentrations
and temperatures, to salt solutions (e.g., sulfates, suldes
and sultes), and in caustic environments. 316L Stainless
Steel tubing can be used in sulfuric acid concentrations even
above 90 percent at low temperature. It is rated for use in
temperatures from -100 deg F to 600 deg F (-73 deg C to
315 deg C), with maximum working pressure of 20,000
psi (1,030 bar) or 60,000 psi (4,140 bar). Tubing is sup-
plied in 18 to 22 ft lengths, with custom lengths available
upon request. Typical applications include heat exchangers,
condensers, pipelines, cooling and heating coils, as well as
applications in the offshore oil and gas, chemical, petro-
chemical, pulp and paper and food industries.
P&S
Product Pipeline
Cost Reduction Through
Improved Life Cycle
Through these upgrades, the pumps life cycle was extended
from approximately 8 months to 60 months, which represented
signicant cost savings. The following estimates the mills cost
savings based on todays dollars in the chart on the right.
Conclusion
The longest running upgraded pump was in continuous service
for more than nine years. Instead of ghting constant down-
time, mill personnel could direct their time and budgets to new
areas of improvement. More reliable pump performance also
translated into a better quality product.
P&S
Estimated Pump Repair Costs before Upgrades
Cost of an average rebuild $80,000
Installation and removal $15,000
Cost per pump per repair cycle $95,000
Cost per pump over 60 months (7.5 repairs) $712,500
Number of pumps 3
Total estimated cost for three pumps over
60 months $2,137,500
Estimated Pump Repair Costs after Upgrades
Cost of upgraded rotor $130,000
Installation and removal $15,000
$145,000
Number of pumps 3
Total cost 60 months $435,000
Estimated cost savings over 48 months $1,702,500
(continued from page 27)
The Aftermarket
BULLETIN BOARD
Troubleshoot Inspect Upgrade
VERTICAL TURBINE PUMPS
TROUBLESHOOT, REPAIR, UPGRADE and TEST
any size, make or location
For more information go to
www.PumpingMachinery.com (seeRepairs section)
770-310-0866
INDEX OF ADVERTISERS
Advertiser Name R.S. # Page Advertiser Name R.S. # Page
ABZ, Inc. 155 61
Alfred Conhagen, Inc. 133 26
All Prime Pumps 141 63
Applied Industrial
Technologies 101 5
Arroyo/Phantom Pumps 134 53
ASI 111 17
Blue-White Industries 112 11
Carver Pump Co. 113 9
Corrosion Fluid Products 156 61
Dan Bolen & Assoc. 142 62
Electro Static Technology 114 24
Emerson Industrial
Automation 126 40
Equipump 157 61
Frost & Sullivan 135 59
Garlock Sealing
Technologies 102 IBC
GIW Industries 115 48
Graphite Metallizing
Corp. 143 62
Hydraulic Institute 136 59
Hydro, Inc. 103 1
Inpro Seal 104 BC
ITT Goulds Pumps 127 35
Junty Industries, Inc. 144 62
KSB 117 10
Load Controls 118 27
Machine Support, Inc. 128 44
Meltric 145 62
Metraex 129 13
Monoo 119 21
National Pump Co. 120 31
Neptune Chemical
Pump Co. 131 37
NOC 158 61
Palmetto Inc. 137 47
Perio Pumps 130 51
Pump Users
Symsposium 105 45
PumpBiz, Inc. 121 38
Pumping Machinery 159 61
R+W Couplings
Technology 116 19
Rebound Products Inc. 122 22
Ruhrpumpen 106 3
Schlumberger 123 39
SEPCO 124 25
Serlco 138 47
SERO Pump Systems 146 63
Simerics 107 41
Sims Pump Co. 100 32-33
Sims Pump Co. 100 63
Standard Alloys 125 15
Summit Pump, Inc. 148 62
Superbolt 139 26
Synchrony 108 IFC
Tamer Industries 149 63
Trachte USA 150 62
Trask-Decrow 151 63
Tuf-Lok International 152 63
Verder 140 53
Vertio 153 63
Vesco 154 62
VibrAlign 132 49
Wood Group Surface
Pumps 110 29
* Ad index is furnished as a courtesy
and no responsibility is assumed for
incorrect information.
PUMP USE RS MARKETPLACE MARKETPLACE PUMP USE RS
Serving the Pump & Rotating
Equipment, Valve, and Industrial
Equipment Industry since 1969
Domestic & International
Specializing in placing:
General Management
Engineering
Sales & Marketing
Manufacturing
DAN BOLEN JASON SWANSON
CHRIS OSBORN DAN MARSHALL
9741 North 90
th
Place, Suite 200
Scottsdale, Arizona 85258-5065
(480) 767-9000 Fax (480) 767-0100
Email: danbolen@mindspring.com
www.danbolenassoc.com
EXECUTIVE SEARCH/RECRUITING
Pump Industry Sales
Sales Engineer
Graphite Metallizing Corporation has Sales
opportunities in various geographic regions of
the U.S. We manufacture GRAPHALLOY self-
lubricating bearings specically for pumps, high
temperature and submerged applications, places
where ordinary bearings fail.
This is an independent, position, supported by
strong sales, marketing and engineering staff
at our headquarters. Responsibilities include
selling and promoting our products to pump
manufacturers, reneries, chemical plants,
process industries and more. Pump experience,
a technical degree, and mechanical aptitude are
required. Renery experience is a plus.
Graphite Metallizing is a growing, ISO-9001
certied, manufacturer of bearings and bushings
for industry. We have a long established
reputation for quality and customer service.
Submit your resume with salary history to
recruiting@graphalloy.com or fax to
Recruiting at (914) 968-8468.
For more information, see our website at
www.graphalloy.com
Employment
Your Best Value in
Commercial Pumps
Model CC & FM
Green Bay, WI
www.SUMMITPUMP.com
PUMP USE RS MARKETPLACE
C
A
N

M
A
K
E

O
B
S
O
L
E
T
E

P
A
R
T
S

F
O
R

A
N
Y

P
U
M
P
Use the Best!
Sims
Replacement Pump Parts

PRECISION MACHINED IMPELLERS,
RINGS, SLEEVES & BEARINGS
FOR ALL CENTRIFUGAL PUMPS!
Specialists in Structural Composites
Specialists in Hydraulic Design
Specialists in Cavitation
1-800-SIMS-303
SIMS PUMP CO.
Since 1919
201-792-0600
US Navy Approved
100% Made in USA
www.simsite.com
P&S Stats and Interesting Facts
P&S Stats and Interesting Facts
800
900
1000
1100
1200
1300
1400
1500
1600
1700
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53
-0.40%
-0.20%
0.00%
0.20%
0.40%
0.60%
0.80%
1.00%
Dec-08 Jan-09 Feb-09 Mar-09 Apr-09 May-09 Jun-09 Jul-09 Aug-09 Sep-09 Oct-09 Nov-09
Pump and Pumping Equipment Manufacturing
Air and Gas Compresor Manufacturing
Pump and Compressor Manufacturing
Chemical
Food, Beverage and Tobacco
Petroleum and Coal Products
Mining
Paper
65.00%
70.00%
75.00%
80.00%
85.00%
90.00%
Dec-08 Jan-09 Feb-09 Mar-09 Apr-09 May-09 Jun-09 Jul-09 Aug-09 Sep-09 Oct-09 Nov-09
$1.50
$1.70
$1.90
$2.10
$2.30
$2.50
$2.70
$2.90
Nov-08 Dec-08 Jan-09 Feb-09 Mar-09 Apr-09 May-09 Jun-09 Jul-09 Aug-09 Sep-09 Oct-09 Nov-09 Dec-09
Average Price of Gasoline
Average Price of Diesel Fuel
Rig Count (U.S.): Jan. 2, 2009 - Jan. 7, 2010
N
u
m
b
e
r

o
f

R
i
g
s

R
u
n
n
i
n
g
Week
Month-to-Month Percentage Price Change
in Pumps and Compressors
Plant Capacity Utilization by Industry
Average Fuel Prices (United States)
Source: Baker-Hughes Inc.
Source: Federal Reserve Statistical Release
Source: Energy Information Administration
The Producer Price Index program of the U.S. Department of Labor measures the average change
over time in the selling prices received by domestic producers for their output. These charts detail
the month-to-month percentage change in selling prices. Source: U.S. Department of Labor
Youve got a leak. Youre looking at a massive tear down. Days of
work. Hour after hour of lost production. Stressful? Oh yeah... Keep
your composure with the Split Guardian
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Guardian
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MICRO-TEC
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GARLOCK BEARING ISOLATOR FAMILY
The Inpro/Seal Company has been in the business of
bearing protection for rotating equipment for 32 years and
counting. We have been supplying bearing protection for the
IEEE-841 motors since they were first introduced to industry.
It is only logical that we would expand into the field of motor
shaft current mitigation to protect motor bearings. The CDR is:
Machined entirely out of solid corrosion resistant
and highly conductive bronze, the CDR/MGS is
capable of carrying 12+ continuous amps. They
are made exclusively by the Inpro/Seal Company
in Rock Island, IL, to ensure consistent quality
and same-day shipments when required.
The CDR and MGS (Motor Grounding Seal)
products were developed in our own Research and
Experimentation Laboratory and then extensively
tested and evaluated by professional motor
manufacturing personnel. Our standard guarantee
of unconditional customer satisfaction of product
performance applies. We stand behind our products.
When you order a CDR or MGS from Inpro/Seal,
you are assured of the complete responsibility
for technology and performance from a single
source. We want to earn the right to be your first
choice for complete bearing protection.
ROBUST
RELIABLE
REALISTIC
For more information visit www.inpro-seal.com/CDR or contact
800-447-0524 for your Inpro/Seal Representative.

Pumps and Systems Magazine

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The Magazine For Pump Users Worldwide February 2010

is a leading supplier of more than 3 million

(Grand Terrace, CA); Neptune (Lansdale,

CAN SAVE YOU MORE THAN OUR PRODUCTS COST.

is a registered trademark oI W. L. Gore and Associates.

pumps provide versatile, low-main-

, Griswold, Neptune, Almatec

Replacement Pump Parts

Bearing Isolator. The Split

is the only Split Isolator with a specially designed unitizing

www.splitisolator.com | 1.866.556.9873 | www.klozure.com

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