Why use an OEM for centrifugal pump repairs?

Centrifugal pump OEMs claim they provide higher elements, service, response and worth than aftermarket service firms, however that isn’t at all times the case.
Until the early Nineteen Nineties, OEM repair facilities labored completely on their merchandise, espousing the mantra, “We know our products best.” During digital pressure gauge , a decrease in new product sales triggered OEMs to change their story and boast that their outlets might work on any model of centrifugal pump. Suddenly, their particular product data applied to all centrifugal pumps.
According to the net journal, World Pumps, six of the main U.S. centrifugal pump producers of the Nineteen Eighties have been consolidated into one, Flowserve. Many U.S. legacy manufacturers are nonetheless manufactured by Flowserve. During the various mergers and acquisitions, the united states Department of Justice pressured the sale of some brands to other producers. Products have been disassociated from their designers.
Before the nice consolidation, each OEM had a chief engineer and a quantity of other product designers who employed a holistic design course of, which considered the whole product, the interaction of its numerous components, the user’s application and trade specifications. When a person had a significant drawback, the chief engineer was referred to as to type it out. The lessons discovered were included into future designs and centrifugal pumps evolved over many years.
Industry requirements, API 610 specifically, had been developed by users to simplify procurement of quality equipment and to improve pump reliability. It is a compendium of users’ experiences, that are often costly experiences. API 610 captures options to widespread centrifugal pump design issues and best-in-class design features.
Computers loaded with wonderful software 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 team of people to create and distribute microfilm. In the early Nineteen Eighties, we added a Fortran programmer to our workers. Today, that expertise and many ability units are on my desktop. Integral calculus is finished with a click in MathCAD. Finite factor analysis of buildings, strain vessels and even shaft keyways are built-in into our strong modelers. Hydraulic component design software feeds computational fluid dynamics analysis packages, reducing hydraulic design threat. Rotordynamic analysis software program coupled with structural analysis instruments solves — and hopefully prevents — vibration points.
3D optical scanners and laser trackers provide accurate models of complex shapes. Conhagen can duplicate any pump case in a single afternoon and enhance it by the next week. It can produce a new case or impeller casting in five or six weeks. The development of patternless molds — 3D printed sand molds — was the game changer for Conhagen, yielding excessive fidelity, affordable price and fast supply in most any metallic.
Conhagen has advanced from a repair shop to a producer that designs new centrifugal pumps or modifies present pumps for specific functions. Unique designs present the mandatory hydraulic efficiency and mechanical robustness to reduce the total price of ownership. Two examples of case replacements are included in this editorial — a 4 stage, axial break up, boiler feed pump’s carbon metal 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 new case, shortening the space between bearings from 37 3/4 inches to 30 5/8 inches.
Conhagen has been in business for 80 years. Its products embody detailed engineering calculations, manufacturing drawings, installation, operation and maintenance manuals, a one-year operation guarantee and help for administration of change stories. It is sufficiently big to be responsible, yet sufficiently small to be responsive.
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