April 29, 2013 - BJM Pumps says its new, 35-ft high, 8000-sf warehouse allows it to increase inventory levels and “keep up with the steady increase in sales”. The added inventory will shorten delivery times of pumps, parts and accessories to its customers, promises BJM, and “allows us to be more efficient”.

As the second-most common machine in all of industry (after electric motors), pumps are at the heart of everything. The world's food, fuel, water and electricity are all processed and transported by pumps. To recognize this technology that is the heart of modern manufacturing, ITT Corp.'s Goulds Pumps brand observed the second-annual Pump Appreciation Day on Apr. 9, 2013, to raise awareness of the value of pumps and the people and organizations that design, apply, install and service them.

In conjunction with Pump Appreciation Day, ITT Goulds Pumps donated $25,000 to the international Emergency Cardiovascular Care (ECC) Program, supported by the American Heart Association and its global partners. Events held on the second Tuesday of April each year include public recognition for recipients of the Heart of Industry and Pulse of Industry Awards, as well as open-house celebrations, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training sessions and other educational events organized by the ITT Goulds Pumps sales team and distribution network.

At ITT Goulds Pumps headquarters in Seneca Falls, N.Y., a recognition event featured a presentation on heart-healthy eating habits, followed by a reception with specially prepared snack items that promote cardiovascular wellness.

"Our food, our fuel, our clothing, nearly everything we use daily, has a pump somewhere in its processing," said Robert Pagano Jr., president of ITT Goulds Pumps. "We're thrilled to devote a special day and related activities to spotlighting the technology and people behind pumps—the heart of industry—and to promoting heart health."

Pumps are behind thousands of daily operations. They allow us to properly handle liquid chemicals for the creation of clothing, heart valves or life-saving medicines. When food needs to travel from farm to table—sometimes from one side of the world to the other—pumps are instrumental in the process. Pumps also take on the world's toughest jobs, such as draining an Olympic swimming pool at 200,000 gallons per minute, or transporting scalding 700ºC crude oil to a refinery.

In addition to Pump Appreciation Day events and awards programs, an online World of Pumps Quiz, which tests visitors' knowledge of the pump industry and its products, has attracted more than 15,065 unique visitors from 151 countries in the past five months.
www.itt.com
www.gouldspumps.com

Pump service—scheduled and unscheduled maintenance and major overhauls—is a growing business for KSB in Canada. In order to handle the increasing volume of maintenance and repair work, the Canadian subsidiary of global pumpmaker KSB has hired a second service sales expert, James Jette, with responsibility for southwestern Ontario. Jette has more than 25 years of mechanical experience (including more than 18 in the pump industry) and holds degrees from the New England Technical Institute and Humber College.

“Having worked on major projects, from startups to commissioning, as lead technician for many years, James is a sales pro with top-notch, hands-on experience,” says Gary Zeidler, national service manager for KSB Canada. “These credentials and his outgoing personality make him a great addition to our team – and an extremely helpful resource for our many service customers.”

Utilizing sophisticated machine shop equipment and a 16-tonne overhead crane at KSB’s Canadian headquarters in Mississauga, Ont., the service division can handle almost any size of pumps from any manufacturer. Services range from preventative maintenance to major repairs and total overhauls. In addition, KSB Canada can draw upon the pumpmaker’s U.S. and international resources to meet the most challenging maintenance problems, even breathe new life into old pumps with customized upgrades.
www.ksb.ca

The Power Transmission Distributors Association (PTDA) welcomed four new members in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Gorman-Rupp of Canada Ltd. (St. Thomas, Ont.) is a manufacturer of pump products. General manager Robert Furneaux said, “Our membership in PTDA is an ideal avenue to communicate with our manufacturing peers, participate with our distribution and strengthen our global brand presence.”

A & W Bearings & Supply Co. Inc. (Dallas, Texas) is a distributor of bearings, mechanical PT, motors, electrical/electronic drives, hydraulics & pneumatics, linear motion, and motor/motion control products. George Yarbrough, president and CEO, said, “As a 40-year-old company, we’ve not been very involved in very many associations, but we are excited that PTDA can offer us both networking and educational learning opportunities and we are eager to take advantage of both.”

Brenner Industrial Sales (Youngstown, Ohio) is a distributor of mechanical PT, bearings, motors, material handling, motor/motion control products and electrical electronic drives. Bruce Anderson, president, said he joined PTDA because, “I’m hoping to better connect with my fellow distributors and gain access to affordable training materials created and vetted by my distributor colleagues.”
 
Northeast Industrial Technologies Inc. (Lima, N.Y.) is a distributor of mechanical PT, material handling, bearings, motors, electrical/electronic drives, linear motion, motor/motion control and hydraulic & pneumatic products. Michael Shaffer, CEO said, “We joined the Association hoping to gain access to industry barometers and market trends and learn more about what is going on in the industry. So far, the Association is delivering.”
 
Founded in 1960, the PTDA is the leading association for the industrial power transmission/motion control (PT/MC) distribution channel.  A U.S.-based trade association, PTDA represents 174 power transmission/motion control distribution firms that generate more than $11 billion in sales and span close to 3,400 locations in the United States, Canada and eight other countries. PTDA members also include 184 manufacturers that supply the PT/MC industry.
www.ptda.org

Markland Specialty Engineering presents its automatic sludge blanket level detector for process monitoring and pump control, which monitors interface levels to maintain preferred sludge depth in lamellas, DAFs, decanting tanks and SBRs, when clarifying incoming process water or treating wastewater prior to discharge. It automates desludge pumps to operate only when necessary: to prevent overflows, to avoid pumping large volumes of water/thin sludge, and to optimize sludge density before subsequent processing. The detector uses high intensity infra-red beams to find thick or thin sludge. Its four power levels automatically adjust for different concentrations of particulates. Simple to install, it requires no calibration. Optional feature/upgrade: wireless data link.
www.sludgecontrols.com

ClydeUnion Pumps has relocated its Canadian works to a new facility in Burlington, Ont., almost doubling its manufacturing footprint. The new site provides increased regional production capacity, allowing larger between bearings style pumps to be manufactured on site.

The operation’s new upgraded pump test facilities means pumps can be proven locally in what is now North America’s highest power test facility for ClydeUnion Pumps. This results in reduced lead times for our customers and the ability to witness tests locally.

The 6,500-square-metre (70,000-square-foot) facility will manufacture single and multi-stage centrifugal pumps to API610 standards and reciprocating power pumps to API674 standards using a range of in-house capabilities such as state of the art machining, equipment balancing, assembly and testing. The location is also well suited to allow use of high capacity overhead crane bridges, in-house painting and machining.

The Burlington facility has come a long way from a small sized service center back in the 1980’s to a full feature manufacturing facility for Original Equipment (OE) and aftermarket services. The new layout offers a wide variety of aftermarket service capabilities including repair, re-rate and upgrade services for all ClydeUnion brand Pumps as well as for pumps manufactured by others.

“The key incentive for relocation was to obtain a larger footprint for our growing Original Equipment business. Another important initiative was commissioning the enhanced pump performance test facility which is capable of testing up to 5,000 HP (3,730 KW), 22,000 US gpm (5,000 m³/hr) flow-rate in order to serve a multitude of customers in oil & gas, mining & minerals, water & industrial and aftermarket segments” said Shakil Ahmed, general manager and plant director of the Burlington facility.
www.clydeunion.com

Gorman-Rupp, a global manufacturer of pumps and pumping systems, has appointed Robert Furneaux as general manager for it’s Canadian operations based in St. Thomas, Ont.

He will succeed Gary Creeden (Gorman-Rupp Canada’s current vice-president) upon his retirement July 1, 2012.

Robert began his career with the CIBC and has held various senior management roles with Pella/Hunt, Romaco, Herman Miller, CanWel, Weston Forest and PTM Industries.
www.grcanada.com

KSB Pumps Inc., the Canadian subsidiary of the global KSB Group, has appointed Calgary-based Waste ’n WaterTech Ltd. as its exclusive distributor for the municipal water and wastewater markets in Western Canada.

Effective immediately, KSB’s municipal customers in B.C., Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan can count on the in-depth sales expertise that has made Waste ’n WaterTech one of Western Canada’s most successful solution providers for owners and operators of wastewater treatment and water purification facilities.

In business for over fifteen years, Waste ’n WaterTech (www.watertech.ca) offers a highly diversified line of equipment and technologies needed to efficiently handle water, wastewater and biosolids. Their product portfolio, which covers all levels of wastewater treatment (primary, biological and tertiary) and water treatment, including products from some of the world’s most-respected OEM’s. 

“By adding pumps and mixers from the world-renowned KSB Group to our portfolio, we close one of the last gaps in our offering – making it even easier for our customers to use us as the single source for all their equipment needs,” emphasizes David Van Vliet, president of Waste ’n WaterTech. 

“A key reason to select Waste ’n WaterTech as our partner for Western Canada is the company’s reputation as an extremely experienced hands-on supplier to municipalities,” says Mike Blundell, President & CEO of KSB Pumps Inc. “Their practical approach will benefit KSB’s municipal customers in the water and wastewater field.” 

To implement the new partnership, KSB and Waste ’n WaterTech plan a series of joint seminars and workshops for operators and technicians from municipal water and wastewater treatment facilities. These will be offered as certified courses so attendees will be able to earn credits for their professional enhancement programs. Other co-operative activities will include partnering in advertising and regional trade shows.

Waste’n Water Tech will exclusively cater to KSB’s municipal customers in Western Canada, while the global pumpmaker’s sales and engineering office in Calgary will continue to serve the needs of all industrial customers.
www.ksb.ca

Pumps, fans, compressors and other motor-driven rotating equipment are essential to manufacturing, commercial and institutional enterprise, from fluid handling systems in petrochemical plants to large air comfort systems in shopping malls.

Many facilities monitor this type of equipment on a regular basis, because often a simple problem like lubrication can be spotted and fixed inexpensively, before the entire unit burns out. Such strategies fall under the general heading of predictive maintenance (PdM).

Thermal imaging is especially useful for monitoring rotating equipment since many impending failures are accompanied by overheating. This predictive technique uses a handheld thermal imager to capture two-dimensional images representing the apparent* surface temperatures of equipment.

What to check?
While it is in operation and under load, monitor rotating equipment that is critical to your operations, i.e., equipment whose failure would threaten people, property or production. Be sure to scan the equipment’s drives — electric motors and gearboxes (if any). Also, on pumps and fans, get thermal profiles of the housings—scans that are likely to reveal any problems with bearings or seals — as well as scans of shaft couplings or drive belts and sheaves.

What to look for?
In general, look for hot spots and pay special attention to differences in temperature between similar units operating under similar conditions. For example, if a bearing in one fan in a bank of similar fans is running hotter than rest, the hotter one may be trending toward premature failure.

On a pump, a difference in temperature along a seal or gasket is the “signature” of a failure. A hot spot on the housing adjacent to a bearing may signal an impending bearing failure, although the root cause probably will not be ascertainable from a thermal image alone.

What represents a “red alert”?
Equipment conditions that pose a safety risk should take the highest repair priority. However, the imminent failure of any critical pump, fan or compressor represents a red alert. Consider using key safety, maintenance and operations personnel to quantify “warning” and “alarm” levels for these assets.

What’s the potential cost of failure?
Because pumps, fans and compressors are key to productivity in so many industries, it is difficult to speak generally about the cost to a company from the failure of a critical unit. However, a failed pump at one automotive facility cost more than US$15,000 to repair while lost labor costs totaled US$600 per minute and lost production opportunities amounted to US$30,000 per minute.

Follow-up actions
Whenever you use a thermal imager and find a problem, use the associated software to document your findings in a report that includes a digital photograph as well as a thermal image. That’s the best way to communicate the problems you find and to suggest repairs. If a catastrophic failure appears imminent, the equipment must either be removed from service or repaired immediately.

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For more information, visit www.flukecanada.ca.

A new tool from Rockwell Automation conveniently allows manufacturers to use mobile devices or computers to calculate potential savings derived from variable frequency drives to power pumps and fans. Manufacturers can use the online energy savings calculator or download the free mobile application to their iPad, iPhone, Blackberry or Android systems (see links below).

With this new tool, users can compare conventional methods, such as valves for pump control and dampers for fan control, to variable frequency drives and see estimated cost savings of installing an Allen-Bradley PowerFlex drive. The tool offers two ways to calculate energy consumption. Users can enter the minimum pump or flow percentages, annual operating hours, cost per kilowatt and other information about their own factory, or use the sample data provided by Rockwell Automation built into the tool.

“We’re committed to providing a comprehensive approach to meeting companies’ sustainability objectives to reduce energy waste,” said Doug Weber, business development manager, Rockwell Automation. “That’s why we designed these simple, online and mobile calculators. Now manufacturers can quickly and easily plug in information about their own systems to discover energy-savings opportunities, which is often the first step in pursuing them.”

The tool is part of the Rockwell Automation Intelligent Motor Control portfolio, which helps manufacturers easily access and control their motor assets. The technology behind Intelligent Motor Control – including variable frequency drives, intelligent software and condition-monitoring devices – helps manufacturers improve motor control performance for greater overall production efficiency.

“With the increasing prices of energy, manufacturing executives can no longer ignore the impact energy reductions can have on an organization's bottom line,” explains Nuris Ismail, senior research associate, Aberdeen Group. “We’ve found that business capabilities and tools designed to cut wasteful energy consumption can help them surpass energy and operating margin goals, as well as improve their operating equipment effectiveness by as much as 89 percent.”
www.rockwellenergycalc.com

Download information:
• Pump Energy Savings Calculator for Android
• Pump Energy Savings Calculator for iPhone and iPad
• Fan Energy Savings Calculator for Android
• Fan Energy Savings Calculator for iPhone and iPad