Does anyone have experience with a vertical Sundyne LMV-801 with an intermediate bearing box between the motor and the pump?
We have a pair of 15 HP pumps that have experienced repeat bearing failures even after factory troubleshooting. Pumps are high suction pressure (~400 PSIG) and typically...
@JJPellin
Thanks for the input-- I'll focus my attention on figuring out where the coating material is coming from. Sounds like this is the most likely scenario given that we haven't found any other smoking guns yet.
@1503-44
The suction temperature is controlled and is consistently 70F. I've seen issues in the past where this temperature inadvertently drops and causes a spike in amps. However, the increase we're dealing with now is slow but steady. Ambient temperature doesn't seem to have an effect either...
@1503-44
This pump is moving liquid ethane out of a coalescer as part of a dryer circuit. The flow rate varies based on the dryer cycle which regens every 18 hrs. The SG does not change enough to cause this slow increase in power demand. When we swing pumps, one pump will be pulling 45 amps for...
I don't have a cross sectional drawing but attached is an as-found picture after we pulled the pump for high amps. It's a 24 straight vane SS impeller, 6.3" diameter.
The impeller is stainless so it should have a metallic finish-- not this dark coating that we're seeing.
I guess my question...
Hey guys,
I've been having trouble with a pair of Sundyne LMV 311s and I'm running out of troubleshooting ideas. Figured I'd ask around to see if anyone has had similar issues or has any suggestions.
Background:
The pumps move ambient temperature light hydrocarbons at a low flow (cycles...
I finally got some info out of GE regarding this motor. They said this particular lower bearing design has been a major problem. For some reason the bearing doesn't slide is the bearing cavity as designed. When the shaft heats up and tries to push the bearing down, it gets stuck and overloads...
They're definitely not over greasing it. They said they fill the bearing up to about 1/2 capacity.
The motor is still running unloaded and I'm going to keep running it all day to see if something goes squirrelly.
We didn't add the grounding brushes because we wanted to measure the current...
While running the motor unloaded, we didn't see anything unusual in regards to shaft current. The lower bearing is running about 117F unloaded (that doesn't really tell us much)
I talked with the motor shop and before the last failure, they gave the lower bearing over 0.200" to grow up and...
Thanks Pete, that's really helpful info. We are running an unloaded test tomorrow. The motor shop wants to rule out any bizarre shaft current issues since it's a 2300v motor.
I'll have them re-evaluate the bearing stack up and clearances too.
Thanks
These pumps have only been in service about 2 years so they haven't been removed for an overhaul yet. I've cleaned 2 out of the 3 strainers and didn't find any significant debris.
Thanks for the reply!
Thanks for the reply, do you agree with their recommendation for a shaft grounding system?
I know they're common with VFDs but I haven't seen them anywhere else. Their recommendation is based on the fact that this is a 2300v motor that has now been repaired a few times.
Yes, this is a solid shaft motor with a grease lubricated deep groove radial ball bearing. I don't believe the bearing is fixed vertically. There is nothing constraining it from moving up or down as the motor heats up. On the ODE, there are two thrust bearing for downward thrust and one for...
The vendor is working on the spring plate design at the moment. The only reference I can find to it online is here about half way down the page:
Link
The shaft diameter is 1.686" at the bushings.
I'll wait and see what the vendor comes up with in terms of this spring plate design, it will...
Hey guys,
I'm running out of troubleshooting ideas with on a particular GE vertical motor so I figured I'd give the forum a shot.
The issue we're having is on a 150HP, 2 pole, 2300V GE vertical motor. This is driving a 9 stage vertical turbine LPG pump. No VFD, just an across the line starter...
Thanks for the replies.
Just to add a few more comments, the bowl and impeller wear rings are Vespel and SS. The vertical line shaft bushings are carbon. The installed clearances are 0.010".
I finally got the vendor to acknowledge we have a problem. They are designing a spring plate to sit...
Hey Guys,
Figured I'd give this forum a shot since this particular problem has us really baffled.
We have three 3600 RPM / 200 HP vertical 8 stage pumps pumping out of two LPG spheres. At any time two of the three pumps are running. One pump moves a sphere to the unit and one pump recirculates...
