While adding variable speed capability in commercial buildings is not a new idea, a new analysis confirms major energy and cost savings is available by pairing those products with a power drive system (PDS) – regardless of a pump’s load variability. A PDS combines an electric motor, adjustable speed controls and sensors that provide feedback to the equipment, allowing the equipment to slow down or speed up to meet current demand. This idea and the added flexibility a PDS can provide may be even more important as we move forward in uncertain times.

Anyone dealing with installed machinery, or even test running motors in the service center, will encounter instances where structural resonance is amplifying machine vibration. The machine may meet stringent specifications in one instance but exceed acceptable vibration levels in another. A good understanding of natural frequencies and the tests necessary to identify them will help solve these vexing situations.

It is commonly known that pump mechanical seals are temperamental devices that fail frequently. The fact is, mechanical seals are simple devices that are often misapplied, sometimes installed incorrectly, or perhaps installed on pumps that are not well suited for the application.

Para aquellos que son nuevos en el negocio de la reparación de bombas, los sellos pueden resultar intimidantes, sin embargo, es bien conocido que los sellos mecánicos de las bombas son dispositivos temperamentales que fallan con frecuencia. El hecho es que los sellos mecánicos son dispositivos simples que a menudo son utilizados de forma inadecuada, algunas veces instalados incorrectamente o tal vez montados en bombas que no son aptas para la aplicación. En la mayoría de las aplicaciones, los sellos mecánicos son lo suficientemente macizos para tolerar condiciones de operación y de manejo menos óptimas. Para aplicaciones exigentes todo debe estar bien.

The EASA Pump Reliability Seminar is a two-day program that describes in detail the factors related to pump reliability. This webinar introduces participants to those factors and how they come together to ensure a reliably operating pump.

Whether it is a simple re-application of a pump from 50 Hz to 60 Hz (or vice versa), the repurposing of an existing pump, or the application of a new pump to an existing application, determining the proper trim for an impeller can be challenging.

Centrifugal pump failures are most commonly attributed to seal failure, impeller damage and bearing failures. A good understanding of failure modes for seals, impellers and bearings is essential to providing customers with reliable pump repairs.

Vertical turbine pumps (VTP) commonly have rotors with multiple mixed-flow impellers (sometimes 12 or more) that are supported by a vertical pump motor. Such designs offer a lift adjustment for raising or lowering the pump rotor to properly position the impellers within the bowl. Depending on the type of pump, this may be critical for maximizing pump efficiency and could have a significant impact on motor load (current) and reliability.

Vertical turbine pumps depend on the vertical motor's thrust bearings to support the combined weight of the pump rotor and the motor rotor and to counteract the dynamic down-thrust that the pump impellers generate in lifting the liquid.

It happens to just about every EASA service center. A machine shows up for repair; it has leads, and there’s a motor, but the machine is a pump. Most often, it’s a close-coupled pump or a submersible pump. If your response is, “We don’t work on those here,” because you’re thinking, “We don’t know anything about repairing pumps,” you may be turning your back on some very profitable work.