Pump Encounter:
Mark Brein
General Manager
Penguin Pumps
In the following article Mr. Mark Brein, General Manager, Penguin Pumps shares with us one of his personal experience and also gives us wise advice's. Its a great way to learn form the mistakes of other's and I thus, sincerely request you to go through this article and appreciate Mr. Mark's efforts of writing all through this and sharing with us his personal experience to help us learn and grow.
The following brief pump encounter took place in the wet fume scrubber Industry dating back 35 years. For many years this industry has used Cantilevered vertical pumps to pump liquid from an open reservoir, through spray nozzles, back to the reservoir. The tanks holding the liquid were taller than they were wide by a 2 to 1 margin or greater. The liquid level height inside these tanks was always 3 ft minimum. The volume of liquid inside these tanks was always 3-4 times the pumping flow rate. Pump problems encountered over the years were practically zero.
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Then about 15 years ago, the tanks holding the liquid to be pumped changed dimensionally in size to long, flat tanks with 18” high liquid levels inside them. The tank volume was reduced to the pumping capacity. 100 gpm flow rate from a 100 gallon tank in lieu of from a 300-400 gallon tank. After 3-4 months of operation in the field, pump impellers started breaking. Replacement impellers would also break after 3-4 months service. This was not 1 or 2 isolated failures, but 90+% failures. The industry went back to the former reliable designed tanks having 3 ft high liquid levels with volumes that were 3-4 times the pumping capacity, and all the impeller breaking problems disappeared. Why were the tank designs changed? Because they required less space and looked better. Some young engineers thought that they could reinvent the wheel, change the physical laws of nature. One would think that they would know better, but unfortunately, no.
Mounting the pump correctly was not a priority whatsoever------the pump came in last place. Then when the pump fails, the pump gets all the blame for something it had nothing to do with. This is common practice in today’s world. When pump installation consideration is last on the list, usually the pump will be installed incorrectly. There is no space or room available to install the pump correctly. Suction plumbing gets too long, no space available to increase the suction piping diameter, too many 90 degree elbows are employed………and then all the problems begin. I knew a general manager who resigned because his engineering staff demanded higher flow rates from their pumps, and to do so, required the pump suction lines to be increased from 2” to 3” diameter, which could not be done because these same engineers did not leave enough space in their original equipment designs to do this. Yet they insisted that their test data was incorrect when it clearly showed that it was physically impossible to increase flow rates without increasing suction line diameters. The general manager resigned and went to work for a rock quarry making more money and is happy and stress-free. I that I could tell you the name of this company at hand, for you would be shocked.
These stories mentioned previously are true. You will encounter similar issues over the time if you have not already done so. My advice is to always do what is right, be true and tell it like it is, maintain your integrity, no compromise----------you can never be faulted for these attributes. Today, there is rarely any accountability---only pass the buck onto others. Respect a man that admits his mistake and apologizes. We are all human and make mistakes. Once I had a customer call me and admitted that he wired a 5 hp motor wrong and he burnt the motor winding. I could tell by his voice that something else was wrong-----he was going to get fired for his mistake. I told him to come to our shop and I would figure a way to help him. He arrived shortly with the look of death written all over his face. So I told him that this was going to be a good day for him as I handed him a new 5 hp motor and I told him no charge provided he did one thing in return: I told him that I respect a man that admits his mistake, and I will always support and help these types of individuals. I told him that some day in the future, somebody will approach him and require help-----help that person. This was all that I asked 0for in return. I also told him that I was tired of the lies and blame being passed onto others. This guy suddenly looked alive again. He offered to do electrical work for me as payment, and I declined. He knew what my point was and I am sure that he will honor our agreement. What really worries me is the guy that responds back to me that they do not make mistakes, which has really happened to me a few times, and I told them then they were the biggest liars in the town or they were GOD, and I know they were not GOD. This went right over their heads.
This is what I teach our distributors in our seminar sessions, where we exchange ideas. Communication does wonders. I try to keep everything simple---a salesman does not design a pump and would be a poor design engineer; a
design engineer does not sell pumps and would be a poor pump salesman. Thus, when you are discussing pumps with engineers, you should be a bit more technical. When you are discussing pump issues with a purchasing agent, you discuss value and why your pump is better ( never bring up the price—let them bring it up ). One must be able to effectively discuss pump issues on a multitude of levels. If a pump engineer gets too deep with pump theories and calculations with the average person, he will turn that person off completely because he will understand little to nothing of what is being said. So don’t try to make pumps much more difficult than it really is.
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