For this Wednesday Webinar, join Glen Powell as he introduces concepts and terminology related to vibration, with the goal of broadening your knowledge. This will provide you with enhanced knowledge and understanding of vibration and its importance as it relates to the reliability of machines.
News
Throwback: Expedited Vertical Pump Repair & Engineered Upgrade
A critical vertical pump for a 750 MW unit was sent to Hydro South in mid-December 2012 for inspection and repair. The massive pump weighed more than 66,000 lbs. and was 32 feet long and 12 feet tall. When the pump was disassembled, Hydro South’s engineers discovered that a large 42” x 68” section of the discharge elbow was broken, allowing direct flow to bypass the turning section and flow directly into the stuffing box area.
The discharge elbow was made of casted cast iron and could not be welded. A replacement of this size would take around eight months to order and receive. Continue reading
Performance Testing: What Is Your Pump Trying to Tell You? (Webinar)
Would you drive a car off the lot without taking it for a test drive first? Probably not. And yet so many end-users “drive” their pumps off the lot and expect it to work exactly to specification.
Pump testing is an essential step in evaluating the hydraulic and mechanical performance of a pump before installation. Testing is applicable to new pumps, refurbished pumps, or re-engineered pumps and offers insights into equipment reliability, performance and can measure the effect of design changes.
Understanding the power and benefit of aftermarket testing can be confusing. Especially without the knowledge of the various testing capabilities available. Hydro’s testing facility is designed in compliance with Hydraulic Institute Standards and API 610. It’s capable of testing horizontal, vertical and submersible pumps up to 5,000 horsepower. This webinar will focus on aspects of aftermarket testing on problem pumps by diving deep into several case studies where issues were found with a pump prior to assembly—helping save time, headache, and money.
Register at pumpsandsystems.com/webinars
State of the Art Parts: Expedited Impeller
The destroyed sample used for reverse engineering
State of the Art Parts: A Gulf Coast refinery had the primary pump for a critical system at the HydroTex Golden Triangle facility for refurbishment. While the primary pump was in the shop, the backup pump operating on-site began to show signs of failure. The impeller of the pump being repaired had extreme wear and was unable to be reused. The shop needed to source an impeller in an expedited timeframe to complete the repair ahead of schedule and get the primary pump back in service before the backup pump failed. Continue reading
State of the Art Parts: Bearing Cartridge & Adaptor Piece
State of the Art Parts: Hydro Parts Solutions recently supplied a new bearing cartridge and adaptor piece for an OH2 pump from a Caribbean rum distillery. The customer had no spares for these components and was in a critical situation because both parts had failed and were unusable.
The OEM had provided a minimum delivery time of 10-12 weeks for both parts. Because these parts were necessary for the equipment to be returned to service, the customer sought out a qualified vendor who could provide the components in a shorter turnaround time. Hydro Parts Solutions was able to offer a 5-6 week delivery.
This job was particularly challenging because there were no samples to reverse engineer, only rough sketches from the customer. While it is standard to request samples to reverse engineer, because of the tight timeframe, Hydro Parts Solutions created a model using the sketches and the design experience and engineering resources within Hydro. Continue reading