Operation experience of centrifugal single-stage pumps in «ALROSA» Joint Stock Company

Abstract

When mining diamond-bearing raw materials and further extracting diamonds from it in the joint-stock company ALROSA, which is a city-forming enterprise in the north-east of the Russian Federation, various pumping equipment is used, in particular, centrifugal single-stage pumps. In the present work, it is noted that the least reliable in terms of absence of failures of centrifugal single-stage pumps used in the joint-stock company ALROSA are the impellers, seals and bearing assemblies. Using linear correlation and regression analysis, it was found that the durability of the seals and bearing assemblies of the investigated pumps largely depends on the durability of their impellers. In the course of research, it was found that unbalancing the pump rotor due to excessive hydroabrasive wear of the impeller also leads to deformation and fracture of the shaft. In general, residual deformations and destructions are characteristic of the shafts of domestic pulp pumps of GrAT, GrT and Gr types. The most loaded sections of shafts of centrifugal single-stage pumps are installed. The most effective from the point of view of application among the pulp (ground, slurry and sand) pumps are pulp pumps of the Finnish company «Metso». When working on highly mineralized water (brines), the «X» type pumps have proven to be the best among centrifugal single-stage pumps.