Sealless Pump API Specifications

[jdogg05]

Hi,

After a quality inspection it was noted that a sealless centrifugal pump was shimmed with adjustable chocks (underneath the baseplate pedestal between the pedestal and the skid!). The shims were almost 2 inches high providing a tiny bearing surface between the underside of the pedestal and the skid. The motor was also shimmed almost an inch. Both of these issues are explicitly prohibited in API 610 (Centrifugal Pumps).

All of this mickey mouse shimming was done because the piping design did not match the skid design and the suction and discharge flange faces did not line up.

My question is, API 685 (Sealless Centrifugal Pumps) does not mention anything about not shimming the pump or specify a max shim height for the motor... Is API 685 completely independent of API 610 or does it augment the information in 610?

Engineering is saying that because we do not have a company spec for "Sealless Centrifugal Pumps" and that because the pump is a "Sealless" Centrifugal pump, API 610 does not apply...

This just seems very odd and inadequete to me. The pump is always supposed to be the immovable object. It is connected to the piping and then the motor is aligned to the pump... not the other way around. If there is not limit to shim height the machinery could easily be shimmed 2 feet and still align with specification. Also, most of the Sealless centrifugal pumps I have searched online specify both API 610 and API 685 as the design criteria...

Thanks for any help!

 

[EnergyMix]

Seeing that no one else has answered this -- have you gone back and asked the manufacturer? Two inches of shims does seem a bit ridiculous.

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