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Quality Inspection Uncovers Impending Short-Term Failure

Often, a simple shortcut or misstep in a pump maintenance procedure or rebuild can lead to unforeseen and excessive life cycle costs, or ultimately catastrophic failure.

1. A tension test can verify 100% perpendicularity and parallelism of components.

When an end-user could not rotate its critical boiler feed pump shaft to align the pump to its driver, a combined cycle plant contacted an aftermarket pump service provider to examine a problematic third-party pump rebuild, as well as remove, inspect, and repair the failing equipment.

Prior to disassembling the recently rebuilt pump, the aftermarket pump service provider performed a visual inspection to see if there was any evidence of incorrect assembly procedures. The most apparent defect was observed on the outboard side of the pump. The shaft sleeve should have .250” minimum clearance between its face and the labyrinth seal, but the sleeve had been rammed into the lab seal making the pump shaft impossible to turn.

Before shipping any rebuilt pump, it’s essential to perform a quality assurance check to confirm the shaft turns freely. However, in this case, a few critical steps may have been overlooked during the pump’s previous maintenance work.

Read the full article in the May/June 2022 World Pumps Magazine.

 

Emergency Nuclear Pump Rebuild

Faisal Salman and Nick Dagres of Hydro, Inc report how performing new design modifications on two critical safety-related charging pumps have extended their lifespan and reduced maintenance.

Written by: Faisal Salman & Nick Dagres
Published by: World Pumps

Certified Test Lab

Setting up the pump at Hydro’s Hydraulic Institute Certified Test Lab.

A Western European nuclear power plant was having difficulty meeting the necessary hydraulic performance at runout for two centrifugal charging pumps. The system needed 30 ft of Net Positive Suction Head required (NPSHr).

The pumps are safety-related pumps, which pump bore-rated water (water mixed with boric acid) into the reactor to kill nuclear fission. What water is to fire, bore-rated water is to nuclear fission. Bore-rated water kills nuclear reaction.

The two pumps are each about 15 ins in diameter and about 100 ins in length. They were shipped from the Western European site to Hydro, Inc.’s Chicago, IL facility to conduct analysis, redesign, manufacturing, and testing.

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