February 1, 2009

Converting a Pump to Use Mechanical Seals

Andy Becker

Machining Pumps in Place

To position the 12-foot bar from one end of the pump to the other, a J-S machinist had to get inside the pump to set up the ID bearings. With the top half of the pump casing off, the bar was set in the bore with ID bearings. After the top was put back on, mounts were made to put the adjustable bearing on the outboard ends of the pump, allowing the bar to be adjusted and the drive and feed hooked up. The bar was set up and aligned with a dial indicator so that it was perpendicular to the shaft and parallel with the installed bearings. The surface was then cut with a facing attachment — one on each side of the pump. This set-up avoided misalignment of the mechanical seal.

Typically, converting pumps to mechanical seals can take up to 80 hours, but because Hughes was able to conduct the repair on site, the project was completed within 25 hours, saving a substantial amount of time and labor (Figure 7).

7. Time is money. The repair was completed in under 25 man-hours, far fewer than the typical 80 man-hours, because the repair was completed on site. Courtesy: Climax Portable Machine Tools

As the demand for power grows, plant managers are being driven to find more efficient and cost-effective methods for streamlining repair and maintenance processes in order to reduce plant downtime. As this project demonstrates, on-site repair using precision portable machine tools offers significant advantages and enables plants to get back online faster.

— Contributed by Andy Becker, vice president of Business Development and Marketing at Climax Portable Machine Tools.