The Importance of Maintaining Slurry Pumps

Regular maintenance of the Slurry pump can extend the wear life, help avoid unplanned downtime, and reduce the total operating costs for the end user. In the severe beneficiation field, the slurry pump usually runs to a critical point before maintenance is involved. This may seem beneficial in the short term, but in the long term, it will have an adverse effect on your plant.

Regularly monitoring the performance characteristics of the pump allows you to understand its operation in a timely manner, and provide sufficient time for maintenance planning to avoid failures and unexpected shutdowns. From a preventive point of view, routine inspections need to be performed during pump operation to ensure that it runs longer. If an abnormal sound is detected, a leak is found, or a temperature or vibration peak is identified, more comprehensive maintenance is required during the planned shutdown before the failure. Slurry pump manufacturers share this article for you.

vibration

Every machine in operation will vibrate: Put your hand on the refrigerator at home, and you will feel a slight vibration when the motor is running. For most machines, vibration is one of the early indicators of the normal operation of the machine, so it is one of the important measures that require close monitoring.

The index of vibration speed varies with different pumps; when processing clean water, the maximum value of large pumps is usually greater than that of medium pumps. When we introduce solid matter into the fluid, the vibration will increase with the nature of the mixture and working parameters. During routine inspections, we usually refer to historical data to understand the acceptable vibration range of a particular pump in a particular application.

Vibration monitoring is to track trends on a regular basis to understand if there are obvious changes. Our customer-facing technical team is familiar with these data and can tell you when the equipment is approaching its useful life, or whether there are problems that require urgent treatment.

Once the wear life of the pump reaches its limit, the vibration readings usually show an exponential growth curve and begin to increase gradually. However, if our team finds a vibration peak before the end of the service life, then we know that something went wrong and further investigation is needed. Under normal circumstances, the vibration peak is caused by the wear of the impeller or the overflow parts, which can be easily replaced during the planned shutdown.

Bearing assembly

The bearing assembly is a key component in any rotating equipment. Generally speaking, the service life of the bearing assembly depends on the process and operation. When selecting a bearing assembly based on hydraulic performance, the service life of the L10 bearing should be considered. The increase in vibration and noise levels clearly indicates that there may be a problem with the bearing assembly.

One of the main reasons for premature bearing failure is insufficient seal maintenance, which can cause leakage and spray mud and water directly onto the bearing assembly. This problem can be minimized by regularly adjusting the seals and using the correct and continuous lubrication.

Front guard and impeller adjustment

The wear rate of the front guard plate has a great influence on the overall efficiency of the slurry pump. In many applications, the front guard has the shortest service life compared to other components. Our team spends an hour on each pump to adjust and fine-tune the front guard plate, thereby extending the service life of the pump by 50%. This allows other components to be completely worn out at the same rate before being replaced, allowing operators to obtain the maximum cost per ton from the overall reconstruction cost.

It is important to adjust the front guard to ensure the best clearance between the impellers. In order to help operators improve, we have developed automatic rotation and axial adjustment technology to speed up this process and improve the accuracy of axial movement.

Determine the root cause

It should be noted that the drop in efficiency is not always a pump problem. We need to analyze operating parameters and evaluate the application to determine the root cause. Our experts not only observe the pump, but also check the upstream and downstream to see if there are any conditions that might affect the pump's operation. There are many reasons for premature failure of overcurrent parts. A common problem we encounter in this field is that the materials used in the application are incorrect. Operators can use a variety of different material combinations, and it is very important to use the OEM's expertise in hydraulic design and material selection.