Viking Pump is the global leader in positive displacement pumping solutions and we proudly manufacture and assemble our products in Cedar Falls, Iowa. With our own dedicated foundry and machine shop, we build our products from start to finish to our own high standards. This vertical integration gives us better control of our supply lines, enhances our ability to respond to change, and creates stability for our partners and customers. We’ve been centrally located in Iowa since 1911. We're proud of that history. We're proud of the work we've done, still do, and will do together.

Hi! I’m Chad Wunderlich with Viking Pump and this is an internal gear pump. With each rotation of the gears, a set volume of liquid is moved from the inlet to the outlet. And if I were to reverse the direction of rotation, I reverse the direction of flow. Now this isn’t unique to internal gear pumps, other rotary pumps like external gear, lobe, and hose pumps exhibit this same behavior. But did you know it’s possible to make this internal gear pump deliver flow in just one direction, independent of the direction of rotation?

So I started at Viking 6 and a half years ago as an account manager with the OEM team, moved up as a senior account manager and then a supervisor. Currently I'm the customer support manager for the OEM and energy teams. I really started with OEM but I got to work with energy here or there. Really cool to see just starting out having no knowledge of pumps and not knowing what any of the components are to having a lot more knowledge but even looking more at the process and how we can continue to grow better each day.

So I did an internship here. Once I graduated, transitioned into a production planning and scheduling type of role and then recently transitioned to production manager for about 2 years now over the assembly team. I've had some great mentors along the way, ones that have really pushed me to be the best that I can be. I think those kinds of opportunities are important because it helps motivate.

Mechanical seals are extremely common in the pumping industry - and come in a wide range of materials and options. In its simplest form, a single component mechanical seal has two faces that contact and create a seal. These seal faces are lapped to a smooth, high quality finish. One face rotates with the pump shaft - while the other is held stationary in the pump housing. Once a small amount of process liquid reaches the seal faces, a hydrodynamic liquid film is created - this is what forms the seal and lubricates the faces.