Centrifugal pump OEMs declare they provide higher components, service, response and value than aftermarket service companies, however that isn’t always the case.
Until the early 1990s, OEM restore centers worked exclusively on their merchandise, espousing the mantra, “We know our merchandise best.” During the ‘90s, a lower in new product sales caused OEMs to alter their story and boast that their retailers may work on any model of centrifugal pump. Suddenly, their specific product information utilized to all centrifugal pumps.
According to the web magazine, World Pumps, six of the major U.S. centrifugal pump manufacturers of the Nineteen Eighties have been consolidated into one, Flowserve. Many U.S. legacy brands are still manufactured by Flowserve. During the numerous mergers and acquisitions, the U.S. Department of Justice compelled the sale of some brands to other manufacturers. Products were disassociated from their designers.
Before the great consolidation, every OEM had a chief engineer and several other product designers who employed a holistic design process, which considered the whole product, the interplay of its various parts, the user’s utility and trade specifications. When a consumer had a significant downside, the chief engineer was called to type it out. The lessons learned were incorporated into future designs and centrifugal pumps developed over many years.
Industry standards, API 610 in particular, were developed by users to simplify procurement of high quality tools and to improve pump reliability. It is a compendium of users’ experiences, which are usually costly experiences. API 610 captures options to frequent centrifugal pump design issues and best-in-class design options.
Computers loaded with amazing software program have democratized engineering. When I was a design engineering supervisor at Pacific Pumps, I had physicists, mathematicians, metallurgists, engineers, drafters, document managers and a big group of individuals to create and distribute microfilm. In the early 1980s, we added a Fortran programmer to our workers. Today, that talent and lots of talent units are on my desktop. Integral calculus is done with a click on in MathCAD. pressure gauge 0 10 bar ราคา of buildings, strain vessels and even shaft keyways are integrated into our stable modelers. Hydraulic component design software feeds computational fluid dynamics evaluation programs, lowering hydraulic design danger. Rotordynamic analysis software coupled with structural analysis instruments solves — and hopefully prevents — vibration issues.
3D optical scanners and laser trackers provide correct models of advanced shapes. Conhagen can duplicate any pump case in one afternoon and enhance it by the following week. It can produce a brand new case or impeller casting in 5 or 6 weeks. The improvement of patternless molds — 3D printed sand molds — was the sport changer for Conhagen, yielding excessive fidelity, cheap value and quick delivery in most any metallic.
Conhagen has evolved from a restore store to a producer that designs new centrifugal pumps or modifies current pumps for specific applications. Unique designs present the mandatory hydraulic performance and mechanical robustness to attenuate the total price of ownership. Two examples of case replacements are included in this editorial — a four stage, axial break up, boiler feed pump’s carbon steel case was replaced with a CA6NM casting. The second instance is a single stage between a bearings pump that suffered rotor dynamics points. Conhagen designed and manufactured a brand new case, shortening the distance between bearings from 37 3/4 inches to 30 5/8 inches.
Conhagen has been in business for eighty years. Its merchandise embody detailed engineering calculations, manufacturing drawings, set up, operation and maintenance manuals, a one-year operation guarantee and help for administration of change reviews. It is large enough to be responsible, yet small enough to be responsive.
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