Worthington Descaling
Application: Descaling for Plate Mill
Pump Details: Worthington 6WC135 5-Stage
Pump Type: Barrel
A steel mill experienced consistent maintenance problems with their descaling pump and asked Hydro to implement upgrades and modifications to increase pump reliability.Running clearances were reduced and concentricities were returned to 0.001" T.I.R. which allows the pump to be rebuilt with tighter fits. Specially heat-treated material was used so residual stresses would not cause bowing during or after the machining process.
The metallurgy of the wear rings, impellers, stage pieces, and twin volutes was upgraded and a special gall-resistant composite material was used for the wear rings. Hydro also upgraded the stationary wear components from "saw tooth" design by furnishing Lomakin grooves to reduce wear.
The rotor was centralized to reduce turbulent flow and the impellers and rotor were dynamically balanced to a stringent standard of 1 W/N where W represents one half the weight of the component being balanced and N represents the operating speed. Hydro performed A and B Gap Modifications in addition to converting the impellers from 7 to 5 vanes, which substantially reduces vibration at vane pass frequency.
As a result of Hydro's upgrades, the life cycle of the pump was extended from approximately 8 to 60 months and provided significant cost savings to the mill. In 48 months, the mill's estimated savings was $1,702,500.