Long before Covid-19 many of us, myself included, have been sidelined by illness.  During this period of downtime, we rest and minimize physical activity.  Post-illness we’re eager to resume our normal lifestyle, but doing so without preparation can lead to difficulties, even injury.  For idled pumping equipment the same principle applies.

In the world of positive displacement pumping, reduced speed operation is a common requirement.  High viscosity liquids, shear sensitive liquids, abrasive liquids, or any combination thereof require the pump speed to be reduced from synchronous motor speeds.

One of the biggest limitations of a traditional centrifugal pump is its inability to reverse the direction of flow. By design it can only be run in one rotation and one direction of flow. Liquid enters the eye of the impeller at the suction port (typically on the front of the pump), is pushed out radially, and exits the pump at the discharge port (typically on top of the pump). For most centrifugal pumps the suction port is larger than the discharge port to better feed liquid into the pump, and to remove any confusion as to which port is “in” and which port is “out.”  Rotation arrows can be found cast onto the pump or printed on the nameplate to make it perfectly clear that these pumps run in one direction of rotation and one direction of flow.

A gentleman once contacted me to let me know that he’d cracked a head, an impressive, but not entirely unheard-of feat.  When I asked how this had happened he admitted “well, I was wailing on it pretty hard”; I appreciated his honesty.  What followed was a 30-minute conversation full of mis-assumptions and confusion.  At the conclusion I discovered that he was not talking about a head (as in the end plate of a gear pump) but rather a head (as in the top of a snare drum).  An internet search for “head” had landed him on our site by mistake.

In the world of gear pumps, it is common to have liquid handling applications where pressure and vacuum are of concern. So, we wanted to share our perspective and recommendations, to help with making pump choices and decisions for the various pressure and/or vacuum scenarios you may encounter.

Industrial gear pumps have many uses in a wide array of market applications—ranging from food processing to pouring asphalt. A growing area in need of specialized gear pumps is in the oil and gas industry, particularly with regards to the removal of water from natural gas via dehydration. Viking Pump entered this market to support customers striving to deliver high-quality product 24/7 to their end users in the face of rising global natural gas consumption. This increasing demand is expected to continue through 2040, due to population growth, coal displacement by cleaner energy, fracking, etc.