Technical articles

One of the most important parts of pump setup is making sure that the pump and the drive motor are carefully aligned. Misalignment may account for over 50% of malfunctions in rotating machinery, leading to problems such as worn or broken couplers, vibration, and excessive wear of bearings, seals and wear rings.

There are many applications that require pumps that can deliver total developed head ratings of 100 metres or above. Boiler feed applications commonly require high heads, especially for the large boilers used in power stations or in large-scale industrial facilities. Other high pressure applications include pressure washing and descaling operations, condensate circulation systems, and water purification/ desalination systems based on the reverse-osmosis process. Non–industrial applications that make use of high-pressure pumps include firefighting equipment, snow-making equipment for winter sports and service water supply systems for tall buildings.

High-capacity multi-stage centrifugal pumps are widely used where the delivery of large volumes of high-pressure fluid is needed. This includes providing heated water for SAGD installations in the oilsands, industrial condensate systems, refineries, pipelines and for water desalination by reverse osmosis.

As was pointed out in a previous article, the key to minimizing the cost of operating pumps lies in making a good match between each machine’s performance characteristics and the requirements of the system where it is installed.