| Date: 28 April 2011, 05:38
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Next to electric motors, centrifugal pumps represent the most frequently utilized machine
on earth. It has been estimated that
over 10,000,000,000 of them are in use worldwide,
consuming 20% of the world’s energy demand. In 2003, the U.S. Census Bureau reported
that in the year 2000 alone, a total of 7,224,552 pumps valued at $1,621,323,000 were
produced by US companies! (Ref. I–1). And, while these numbers include virtually any
device that moves fluid, they provide a glimpse of the value of pump life extension,
maintenance cost reduction, operating efficiency improvement, and safety enhancements.
Pumps certainly are simple machines, for quite unlike an aircraft jet engine that
consists of somewhere between 6,000 and 9,000 parts, a centrifugal pump is made up of a
rotor, two or three bearings, a few casing parts, perhaps a mechanical seal and a bunch of
fasteners. And yet there are, in the United States alone, many thousands of pumps that
achieve mean-times-between-failures (MTBFs) of only a year or less, whereas in
numerous other identical services MTBF values of over eight years are not uncommon.
This text will explain just how and why the best-of-class pump users are consistently
achieving superior life cycle costs, run lengths, low maintenance expenditures,
and unexcelled safety and reliability. Written by practicing engineers whose working career
was marked by involvement in pump specification, installation, reliability assessment,
component upgrading, maintenance cost reduction, operation, troubleshooting and all
conceivable facets of pumping technology, this text endeavors to describe in detail how
you, too, can accomplish best-of-class performance and low life cycle cost. Or, how your
facility will get away from being a 1.1, or 2.7, or 3.9 year MTBF plant and will join the
plants that today enjoy a demonstrated pump MTBF of 8.6 years.
WHAT PUMPS MUST DO
Pumps are used to feed liquids from one place to another. There is no liquid that cannot
be moved by pumps. If pumps cannot move a product, the product is probably not a
liquid. Pumps are used in every industry conceived by man and are installed in every
country in the world.
But pumps are machines and machines need to be properly designed. The parts for the
pumps need to be correctly manufactured and assembled into a casing. The assembled
pump may have to be inspected and tested; it certainly has to be properly installed. It also
needs to be serviced or maintained with appropriate care and knowledge. And, it needs to
be operated within the intended design envelope.
In other words, pumps can, and usually will fail, if one or more of eight important
criteria are not met. It has been proven (Ref. I–2) that:
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