In any processing plant or mine pit people always talk about the wear on the impeller.. If you look at the maintenance logs you will see that unexpected downtime is just as often caused by a seized bearing.
The reason for this is that vertical slurry pumps are over or inside the sump. This means the drive end gets hit with splashing mud, humidity and heat buildup. When moisture gets past the seals or the grease gets too hot the bearings are finished.
Fixing the Drive End Vulnerability
To stop this from happening newer vertical pumps do not just use grease seals. They use heavy-duty shafts with -stage labyrinth seals and upgraded cooling fins on the housing.
This combination ensures the bearing assembly stays dry and cool, extends service interval to 8000+ hours.
Why 8000 Hours Matters on the Floor
8000 hours is like one year of running all the time. This means that of having to fix a pump in an emergency during production crews can schedule inspections when the plant is closed for its annual shutdown.
No More Burned Out Grease: By keeping the housing cool the grease stays good. Does not break down. This means times when you have to add more grease and less wear on the rollers.
The Takeaway
Getting the metal for your impeller handles the solid things but protecting the bearing assembly is what really keeps the sump pumps running. Keeping the drive end isolated and cool is the way to avoid big failures in harsh sump environments. Sump pumps need to be protected and sump pumps need to be kept cool to run for a time like one year of continuous run time, for sump pumps.
