When I think about our clients using pumps, I think they are always going to be indoors – in a safe climate controlled environment.
It’s not always true – about a third of the pumps we sell would actually be used outside. Funny how your mind works sometimes…
Regardless of whether you are looking to mitigate noise, protect against extreme hot or cold, keep your pump safe from vandalism or theft or even just to keep an ‘eye-sore’ out of sight. There are five key considerations to consider when designing your pump enclosure.
Consideration #1: Size & Strength. The size of your enclosure is as much dictated by ease of maintenance as it is by the size of the pump(s) inside. We see our share of installations where you look at them and say “Gee, I’m glad I’m not the guy who has to service that.”
When you are custom designing a pump enclosure you have every chance to avoid this. So talk to your pump supplier – we’ll be able to help you to understand what maintenance and repair access is required so that your maintenance and repairs are as quick as possible.
Strength of the enclosure is mainly concerned with wind and snow loads (where applicable).
Consideration #2: Climate Control. The first thing that springs to mind – we don’t want water freezing in our pumps do we? Also remember viscosity of other fluids can vary with temperature – oil for instance. We need to consider the temperature range that we want our pump to be operating in.
You might need insulation, heating, ventilation and even cooling in some applications depending on your temperature requirements.
Consideration #3: Protection. To protect against vandalism, theft and terrorism the best pump enclosures are plain looking and blend into the environment. That way the only people who tend to notice them are your maintenance team.
Make sure the doors lock and the structure is robust enough to deter an attacker or persuade them to seek a softer target. If you have a security alarm on the structure, then you want it to be impenetrable until your security team can respond to the threat.
Consideration #4: Access & Maintenance. I’ve mentioned maintenance before as a consideration of size of your enclosure. Ease of maintenance also needs to consider access points – so that both break repairs and routine maintenance are as easy as possible.
Your enclosure should outlast the pump inside it. So be sure that you can hoist out the entire unit and drop in a new one – otherwise it will be a sorry sight – dismantling the enclosure so that you can replace the pump.
Consideration #5: Monitoring. While not a feature of the enclosure as such, it is well worth considering what monitoring is going to be needed for the pump station. We don’t want to find out that out of sight, out of mind has been applied to monitoring system.
The simplest monitoring system would be to have a wireless monitoring system linked into a master monitoring system/control room. Usually you only need a pump power monitor to be sure the pump is working as planned. A spike or decline in power consumption is a dead giveaway there is a problem.
We are more than happy to assist you with specifying your pump housing systems when you order your pumps with us. Give our team a call on 404-363-6000 or drop us a line at sales@pyebarker.com and we can figure out the best pump system for you and work with your pump housing designer to give you a great pump housing.
Regardless of whether you are building a brand new blower system or are overhauling an existing one. This is the perfect time for you and your team to be sure that you are getting the best possible performance from your blower system.
Let’s dissect these roadblocks and make sure you are getting everything you can out of your system
Roadblock #1: Improper Ventilation. For optimal blower performance the blower room needs to be adequately ventilated. If not, you are risking additional downtime, increased maintenance intervals and reduced performance. Check with us about the ventilation and installation specs for your units.
Roadblock #2: Piping System Design. The aim of the game is to minimize pressure drop. This can be measured in an existing system by measuring the pressure at the blower and then the pressure at the discharge points. And it can be calculated from a blueprint.
As a rule choose the right material for your pipes. Use larger diameter pipes and minimize the number of elbows and T’s in the piping system so that your blowers aren’t working to combat pressure drop.
Roadblock #3: System Integration of the Blower Units. We are living in the ‘Golden Age’ of blower systems. Okay, I exaggerate slightly but blower manufactures have made huge strides in creating fully integrated blower units. No more buying individual components and trying to get them to work together. It’s safer and cheaper just to buy the off the shelf systems. The manufacturer has tested them and if they are installed correctly there is only one place to point the finger if you have a problem.
Roadblock #4: Blower System Integration. While blower manufacturers can only test the power consumption of their units and promote their energy efficiency, a given blower may or may not be energy efficient in your system. So be sure to understand your system’s requirements and how the blowers specified perform in that system.
Make sure you use a master controller to keep running costs down through reduced energy consumption and reduced maintenance costs.
Roadblock #5: Maintenance Program. Most of our clients get this, but all the same we see enough cases where the recommended maintenance is seen as a recommendation not a prescription to minimize downtime. I won’t go into the ‘ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure’ routine.
What I’ll advise is: Set up a service log for each component. Follow the service recommendations from the manufacturer. It will reduce downtime and it will prevent costly repairs.
I’ve just outlined 5 roadblocks to efficient blower systems.
If you are seeing these roadblocks in your system then it might be a good time to talk. We can help you identify problems with the system as it stands and then make sure that you get the right blower units for the requirements. Call 404-363-6000 or drop us a line at sales@pyebarker.com and we can guide you through the process.
We do our share of field service for centrifugal pumps – when we get there we often see them being used beyond their specifications and obviously that is when trouble strikes.
If you boil all the problems down, they fall into 10 categories. I’ll deal with the first five now and we’ll dive into the next 5 in a later post.
Centrifugal Pump Mistake #1: Too Much Suction Lift
Play it safe and don’t force your pump to do more work than it has to. Otherwise you are facing unnecessary downtime and additional repairs that could have been avoided.
In many cases when a pump goes down the whole system goes down – so the cost of lost running time is much higher if you calculate the value of the whole system. When you design the system keep the lift well within the limits.
Centrifugal Pump Mistake #2: The pump is too far from the liquid source.
Intelligent system designers know that the suction pipe length be held to a minimum to promote long pump life. Every section of suction piping equates to a volume of air that must be removed when the pump starts. Best practices say to reduce priming time to a minimum.
The literature recommends no more than 30 feet but closer is definitely better. See what I said about suction lift and downtime.
Centrifugal Pump Mistake #3: Leaks in the suction line.
The suction line on a self-priming pump is at less than atmospheric pressure. That means liquid doesn’t leak out of the suction line. Air leaks into the line.
A roll of kitchen cling wrap can be used to test for air leaks – just wrap the line in plastic and see if it is sucked anywhere.
The golden rule is, if your pump takes more than four minutes to prime then you should call in your maintenance team.
Centrifugal Pump Mistake #4: Air/Gas Binding
When you start a centrifugal pump, the air in the suction line needs to be vented otherwise it will form pockets around the impeller – which spins in the air and it heats up… as obvious as this remedial lesson is – we still see air bound pumps…
Make sure some sort of vent is installed so that air can escape while the pump is priming. We are more than happy to make sure your design meets proper pump specs.
Centrifugal Pump Mistake #5: Failure to Complete The Initial Priming
Okay – so the name is slightly misleading. There are warnings in all the product literature yet this still happens from time to time.
There is a priming chamber of some description in all centrifugal pumps. This needs to be filled prior to operation. There are lots of ways to do this – check your documentation and consult with the system designer for the best practice in your situation.
Finally remember: If there is evaporation of the fluid in the priming chamber, leakage, pump movement or maintenance your ‘self-priming’ pumps need to re-primed.
Looking to install a new system with centrifugal pumps? Call 404-363-6000 or drop us a line at sales@pyebarker.com and the team at Pye-Barker can review your system and/or recommend the right pumps and make sure you won’t have any trouble with pump performance. Or we can help you troubleshoot a problem system with you.
Most plant and operations managers realize that compressed air systems often represent major sources of waste in their plant(s). Astute managers know that slashing waste from expenses adds pure profit back to the business.
For this reason we’ve seen an equal rise of compressed air auditing services.
A good compressed air audit covers both the supply side and the demand side of your compressed air system. At the end of the audit you should get a series of short term (can do now) and longer term activities in order to get you a more efficient compressed air system.
Those short term changes often create the savings to fund longer term activities.
For the Supply Side, a good audit will include:
On the supply side we are looking for savings from:
That’s all for part 1 – part 2 will be along shortly. If you are looking to reduce the operating costs of your compressed air system it might be time to inquire about an audit. Call 404-363-6000 or drop us a line at sales@pyebarker.com to have an initial discussion about what you are looking to achieve with your compressed air system.
