Centrifugal pump OEMs declare they supply better components, service, response and value than aftermarket service companies, however that isn’t always the case.
Until the early Nineteen Nineties, OEM repair centers labored exclusively on their products, espousing the mantra, “We know our merchandise finest.” During the ‘90s, a decrease in new product gross sales triggered OEMs to change their story and boast that their retailers may work on any brand of centrifugal pump. Suddenly, their specific product knowledge applied to all centrifugal pumps.
According to the online magazine, World Pumps, six of the main U.S. centrifugal pump manufacturers of the Eighties have been consolidated into one, Flowserve. Many U.S. legacy manufacturers are nonetheless manufactured by Flowserve. During the various mergers and acquisitions, the us Department of Justice pressured the sale of some manufacturers to other manufacturers. Products had been disassociated from their designers.
Before the nice consolidation, each OEM had a chief engineer and a number of other product designers who employed a holistic design process, which thought-about the entire product, the interaction of its varied elements, the user’s application and business specifications. When a person had a significant downside, the chief engineer was known as to sort it out. The classes discovered have been included into future designs and centrifugal pumps developed over many years.
Industry standards, API 610 specifically, have been developed by customers to simplify procurement of high quality gear and to enhance pump reliability. It is a compendium of users’ experiences, that are normally expensive experiences. API 610 captures options to frequent centrifugal pump design points and best-in-class design options.
Computers loaded with superb software program have democratized engineering. When I was a design engineering manager at Pacific Pumps, I had physicists, mathematicians, metallurgists, engineers, drafters, document managers and a large staff of individuals to create and distribute microfilm. In the early Nineteen Eighties, we added a Fortran programmer to our staff. Today, that talent and lots of skill sets are on my desktop. Integral calculus is completed with a click in MathCAD. เกจ์วัดแรงดัน of constructions, strain vessels and even shaft keyways are built-in into our strong modelers. Hydraulic part design software program feeds computational fluid dynamics analysis applications, decreasing hydraulic design risk. Rotordynamic evaluation software coupled with structural evaluation tools solves — and hopefully prevents — vibration issues.
3D optical scanners and laser trackers present correct fashions of complex shapes. Conhagen can duplicate any pump case in one afternoon and improve it by the next week. It can produce a new case or impeller casting in 5 – 6 weeks. The improvement of patternless molds — 3D printed sand molds — was the game changer for Conhagen, yielding excessive fidelity, cheap price and fast delivery in most any steel.
Conhagen has advanced from a repair shop to a producer that designs new centrifugal pumps or modifies existing pumps for particular applications. Unique designs provide the mandatory hydraulic efficiency and mechanical robustness to reduce the total cost of ownership. Two examples of case replacements are included in this editorial — a 4 stage, axial cut up, boiler feed pump’s carbon steel case was replaced with a CA6NM casting. The second example is a single stage between a bearings pump that suffered rotor dynamics points. Conhagen designed and manufactured a model new case, shortening the space between bearings from 37 3/4 inches to 30 5/8 inches.
Conhagen has been in business for eighty years. Its merchandise include detailed engineering calculations, manufacturing drawings, installation, operation and maintenance manuals, a one-year operation guarantee and support for administration of change reviews. It is sufficiently big to be responsible, yet sufficiently small to be responsive.
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