Gene Vogel
EASA Pump & Vibration Specialist
When EASA adopted the slogan “The Electro-Mechanical Authority,” it was more than a superficial initiative. While electric motor repair is a core business for the vast majority of EASA service centers, rotating machinery of all types are a significant segment of service centers’ repair business and overall profitability. Next to electric motors, roto-dynamic pumps (centrifugal and axial flow pumps) are the largest single category of machines repaired in EASA service centers. The reasons for the expansion into the pump repair segment are clearly evident:
- Pumps are expensive machines and are not frequently built to standardized dimensions.Standard NEMA and IEC electric motors arecommodity items with little differentiation between manufacturers. But pumps aremuch less standardized. No standard framesizes exist for two of the most common style pumps – submersible pumps and vertical turbine pumps.
- In many applications, the heart of the pump,the impeller, is specially trimmed to match that application. Replacement requires longlead time, making repair a much more viable option.
- Major segments of pump applications aresecure during times of economic recession. Municipal water, wastewater and flood control have stable funding and demand.
EASA service centers looking for options for expansion, or to replace evaporating existing electric motor repair markets, have seen pump repair as a good fit. A majority of EASA service centers currently repair roto-dynamic pumps. Pumps are by far the largest category of machines driven by electric motors.
If a service center is repairing electric motors, then it is almost certain that some of those motors are driving pumps, and the prospects for pump repair are its existing customers.
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