Have you serviced your pump recently?
Replacing a pump can be expensive, time consuming, and, let's face it, irritating! At Global Pumps we encourage our customers to have their pumps serviced regularly in order to minimize the risk of breakdown, saving them a fortune in replacement costs.
In this article we're going to take a quick a look at how you can maintain your pump, extending its lifespan and ensuring it performs to factory standards.
How to Maintain Your Pump
Prevention is worth a thousand cures, and that is exactly what maintaining your pump will do – prevent failure. It's more difficult to fix an issue with a pump, especially when installed into a vital system, so maintenance is a way to negate such a problem incrementally.
There are a number of preventative actions you can take:
- System Flushing: Debris and other material deposits can easily build up inside a pump. Over time this will seriously affect flow efficiency, and can even clog a system up so badly that it ceases to function. A regular flushing process should be implemented where the internal system surfaces are treated with a chemical agent which is flushed through the pump. The type of cleaning products used will differ depending on the purpose of the system.
- Inspect Seals: This is tricky, as some leakage is needed for certain mechanical seals in order to cool the packing seals. That being said, even in this case there should be no excessive Consult manufacturer guidelines to assess how much leakage is normal. Inspect all mechanical seals regularly for signs of decay, and replace as needed.
- Motor Lubrication: The motor which powers your pump has to be lubricated regularly in order to function optimally. It should also be kept as clean as possible.
- Coupling Alignment: Pumps vibrate significantly and this can cause problems with alignment between a motor and pump. It's important to ensure that the motor shaft centerline is aligned correctly with the pump for the system to work properly.
- Vibration Analysis: By measuring the amplitude and frequency of vibrations within a pump system, it is possible to anticipate future issues such as bearing failure. Vibration analysis can also identify system imbalances which might result in impeller erosion or coupling alignment as previously mentioned.
- Dynamic Analysis: This measures the current signature of a pump's motor, which can help to identify problems with the electrical system or if there has been any mechanical wear and tear such as rotor bar damage.
- Lubrication Analysis: This type of maintenance is usually only carried out on large scale systems which are lubricated with oil. It involves analyzing the oil lubricant for the presence of metal particles or chemical changes brought about by overheating or issues with seals.
- Replace Filters and Strainers: Cavitation can be a real problem for a pump system, and involves bubbles or cavities forming in the system's fluids. Regular inspection of the impeller should tell if this is occurring. If there is a popping sound or pieces of the impeller have been worn away to resemble a sponge material, then there is a big issue. Checking the filters and strainers will help to keep the pressure homogenous through the pump and reduce the risk of cavitation.
There are many other ways to maintain your pump, but by following the eight suggestions above, your pump should perform optimally for some time to come, saving you expensive replacement costs.
Have you also seen our recent blog on How To Reduce Friction in Suction / Discharge Lines?
