Late last year a blue-chip customers called to say they were having problems with a couple of pumps; two magnetically driven gear pumps were circulating a thermal oil through a large mechanical seal to prevent overheating.  Whilst we didn’t supply the original pumps, the company in question have purchased a wide variety of solutions for their other processes on site so approached us for guidance and recommendations on solving the problem.

Initial consultation took the form of Route Cause Analysis reporting which discovered that the viscosity of the thermal oil – which was also manufactured on site – had a very high viscosity which was creating a high load on the drive which subsequently caused it to slip and unable to re-engage. With a mechanical seal of such a size, frequent replacement was extremely costly and a major disruption to the process.

Working closely with our customer, the specifications for the fluid handling equipment were amended and improved with high pressure gear pumps installed.  The positive results were visible immediately with mechanical seals lasting longer, reduction in leaks and a significant decrease in downtime and all identical applications are now going through the same replacement process to improve efficiency across the site. The problem was not the type of gear pump in use but the size and capability of the pump which has initially been installed. Gear pumps are a popular choice for hydraulic fluid applications and use gears to pump fluid by displacement.

Following on from this success, the same chemical manufacturing company came to us with a similar problem on a different application but with the additional problem of high system pressure – much higher than the operating range for the (now) current solution.  In consultation with our engineering team, the same pump range was modified to reliable handle the higher system pressure using common spare parts.

If your current fluid handling solutions are not the right choice for your application, feel free to get in touch with a member of our engineering team and we can arrange a site inspection to discuss your options.  The office is open from 08.30 until 17.00 hrs Monday to Friday and can be contacted on 01933 674777 or 24-hour support is available by emailing sales@cdr.sktesting.co.uk.