Pump Testing

[PUMPDESIGNER]

Would appreciate any recommendations for independant testing companies for pump analyses.
Most testing is done by a manufacturers, but we need independant verifications.

Thank you.

PUMPDESIGNER

 

[JJPellin]

I assume you mean performance testing of a pump. There are a couple of companies that I have dealt with that should be able to do this for you. The first is HydroAire, Inc. They are in the Chicago area and can be reached at (312) 738-3000. The second one that comes to mind is Hickham Industries, Inc. They are in the Houston area and can be reached at (713) 471-6540. I'm not possitive that Hickham does this sort of work, but I think they do. Otherwise, some of the OEM repair shops have started doing repairs, modifications and testing of their competitors products. The Goulds (ITT) shop in the Chicago area is hungry for some of this business. They can be reached at (708) 563-1220.

 

[d23]

Pumpdesigner

I am in a very specialized industry as you know. In our market there are now what I would consider to be four major players and numerous smaller companies in the USA. I would be more than happy to test any of my competitor’s pumps for a very minimal charge just as a means of tracking their stage designs and quality. All three of my major competitor’s do the same for my pumps. If you are talking about multistage pumps send me an email and we can work something out. If you are talking about your surface type pumps talk to some of the manufactures that compete in the same market. I think you will find most companies will test at cost just as a means to help track their competitor’s.

D23

 

[PUMPDESIGNER]

Thank you very much guys.
I hear what you are saying d23 about competitors testing and will benefit from that comment.

PUMPDESIGNER

 

[ccfowler]

Pumpdesigner,

I'm a bit curious about your need for independent pump testing. Is some sort of litigation (or concern for litigation) involved? Have you been finding performance to vary beyond normal expectations?

I've never encountered a case where the manufacturer's published data (high production pumps) or reported test data (large, custom built and tested) was ever truly suspect. I've known cases where that data was not sufficiently clear or was mis-understood, but where clarification was needed, the manufacturers have always been very forthcoming with the necessary information.

The main problems that I've noticed involved relatively small, high production pumps where the data was published by the Sales and Marketing departments to appear in the most "favorable" manner. Such pumps are seldom individually tested for certification purposes. In my experience, variations in performance has always apparently been either within the normal expected range or the deviations were reasonably attributable to wear or to application related issues.

(For what it is worth, I've never had a financial interest involving any pump manufacturer or supplier.)

 

[jbuchyns]

Pumpdesigner,

We have in the past used the services of AEMS in England. One of our customer municipalities recently employed their services to confirm that a 150 Hp pump (two actually, they bought a spare at the same time) they had bought was in fact too large for their application. They had been provided by the vendor with a full size vs trimmed impeller.

AEMS uses the Yatesmeter thermometric efficiency measurement method. We have a test unit of our own and it is currently in use for a comprehensive testing and maintenance scheduling program we have in place for our 100+ water transmission pumps.

You can contact AEMS at:

Advanced Energy Monitoring Systems Ltd.
The Energy Centre,
Finnimore Industrial Estate,
Ottery St. Mary, Devon,
EX11 1NR

Tel: +44 (0) 1404 812294 & 815470
Fax: +44 (0) 1404 812603

Email: info@yatesmeter.co.uk

Regards,

Jeff

 

[PUMPDESIGNER]

ccfowler - No, nothing serious like that. But you are correct in pre-supposing small high volume pump market.

Here is the little story if you are interested.

We are constantly beset by competitors using cheap junk on their equipment. They use what we call "Water Systems" type high volume, cheap little, whatever. All their pumps are huge overloaders, and yes, their marketing department runs the company.

We want to have reliable certifiable information on their pumps. Their pumps have no info published beyond stinkin little graphs, barely readable, with only flow and head. We want to test all those pumps to obtain accurate reliable info, and all the info including power curve, NPSHr, etc.

One was purchased and tested. Published head was 8% above actual. Another identical pump was purchased, same result.

I suppose 8% is not too bad, but we have to be sure when we start having more tested. Could get legal I suppose when I publish their own curves for them. Would never do that to a good company. But hey, the worst that can happen is their marketing geniuses will have to become reaquanted with engineering staff if they can find them, and if they will talk to them huh?

PUMPDESIGNER

 

[dadfap]

pumpdesigner

I am in the oil field & water well market for submersible pumps. The water industry is generally more interested in efficiencies than the oil industry.

I had one customer who addressed the absolute desire for efficiencies in two ways,
1. Witnessed testing at the plant prior to shipping, as I had a delivery deadline to meet with late penalties, there was an awful lot of interest in us meeting the test criteria
2. Guaranteed efficiencies required on site with a % of the final payment held back until they had undertaken the efficiency calculations themselves.

The other way is to get them to do internal tests to different standards. The API tollerances are outside what many purchasers would accept for water well applications and these guys used an Australian standard based on a British standard that was pretty damn tight.

all the best

dadfap