Selecting type of pump

[scorer]

Does anyone please know where I can find an idiots guide or chart for selecting the correct type of pump. For instance viscous fluid consider rotary gear, viscous with solids consider rotary lobe, clean fluids conider sealles pumps, high flow or low flow etc. I am not looking at a specific issue, but just some general info. Perhaps the sort of chart offered by a company that supplies many different types of pumps. I have looked at the web, but can't find a simple one or two page chart or table. Thanking you.

 

[ccfowler]

scorer,

You may want to consider a proper title for such a text to be something like: "Idiot's Guide to Bungle the Selection of a Pump Type"

Anyone who is not sufficiently familiar with pumps and their application is very much better served by getting sound advice from experienced professionals who are familiar with the particular type of pumping system that is needed. This is a subject area where it is indeed very easy to learn just enough to become very dangerous (or at least to blunder very expensively).

 

[PUMPDESIGNER]

Oh boy, ccfowler overheated on that one,
hard to blame him though.
ccfowler makes a valid point and I started to write something on those lines but stopped.

Lists are avaialable if you break down the BIG list into smaller lists.
I have seen pumps that pump basketballs, two by fours, and shoes down to pumps that fit on a circuit board.

BIG TOPIC, way too large to put down in the requested size.
Perhaps the biggest thing that overwhelms ccfowler and myself is that pumps are probably the most abused of all mechanical devices, far more abused than electrical because the results are not so life threatening most of the time. Make a mistake, learn from it if you can and then move on.

And to be honest, I have seen more violation of engineering ethics involving pumps than any other device out there. I normally keep my mouth shut, but several times I wanted to go to war with big engineering firms because of horrible and inexcusable dereliction of duty then avoidance of blame.

PUMPDESIGNER

 

[pennpoint]

scorer

Just for fun, go to this website.

http://www.animatedsoftware.com/pumpglos/pumpglos

 

[ccfowler]

PUMPDESIGNER,

I think that we are very much in agreement, and you are right about hideously inappropriate pump (and dreadful related piping) applications!

In general, the most absurd applications seem to involve "creative" attempts to reduce initial costs. The life-cycle cost burdens of a poor application can quickly amount to staggering sums when limited and lost production, burdensome maintenance, and excessive energy costs are considered.

In my experience, being fully honest with major manufacturers about all the known (and anticipated) circumstances of a proposed installation is most likely to result in the most realistic choices of alternatives. (Maintaining reputation, concern for liability, and depth of related application experience provides a potent combination that can be mutually beneficial.) I've known reputable manufacturers to back away from a potential sale because they could not offer what they considered to be a reasonably suitable pump. They realized that one poor application could hurt their prospects for all future business.

This brings to mind one of the concerns that I hold regarding the trend toward "single supplier" agreements that have been building in recent years. Too often, that supplier will have an almost-good-enough choice available, and that will then result an almost-good-enough application that will be plentifully troublesome (and painfully expensive) after implementation.

This may be a bit of a rant, but as is obvious, these are sore points based on many experiences and observations.

 

[PUMPDESIGNER]

I have to get off this thread, I'm starting to overheat.


PUMPDESIGNER

 

[vanstoja]

I haven't seen a 1 or 2 page chart for all-kinds-of-pump selection for particular applications but I have seen at least one notable special report by Power magazine in June 1972 which covers a lot of ground in 24 pages with a multitude of pictures and cross-sectional illustrations of centrifugal, rotary, metering, diaphragm pumps in the context of processed fluids. Try Power magazine for issues of old special reports of the kind that are not published by them anymore. Currently, Pumps and Systems magazines seems to be the most likely source of a 1 or 2 page table of the sort you're looking for at

http://www.pump-zone.com.