Fundamentals of operation maintenance and monitoring of a centrifugal pump

Abstract

Pumps are at the heart of most industrial processes and are the second most common machine in the world. Because pumps are so common, they are often overlooked as a potential source of increased productivity or the cause of excessive costs in improper operation. Plant managers, maintenance engineers and production managers should adhere to best practices and understand what can and cannot be done to properly use pumps in production and industrial applications. This article provides an overview of how to properly operate pumps and performance parameters that need to be monitored as part of a preventive or predictive monitoring program. It also describes continuous monitoring systems with several examples of their application to improve system performance and reduce maintenance costs. Ideally, five parameters should be monitored to understand how the pump works: suction pressure, discharge pressure, flow rate, pump speed and power. In an ideal world, all pumps would be the right size to operate continuously with maximum efficiency. In the real world of an industrial enterprise, this is impractical, since processes are fluid both literally and figuratively.