A wastewater plant operator was being called in every couple of weeks to remove, disassemble, and clean wastewater pumps at one or other of the facilities that the company maintains.
Aeration pumps float on wastewater treatment dams and ensure that chemical decomposition of the dirty water occurs before the wastewater gets treated further. The pumps ensure that the water remains oxygenated and that there is aerobic decomposition rather than anaerobic decomposition, which usually results in volatile and poisonous gases such as methane.
The pump design that was in place was a standard vertical shaft pump design with an output of between 5 kW and 10 kW.
However, the bearing design was complex and prone to failure before the introduction of Vesconite materials.
Gallagher Fluid Seals' partner, Vesconite Bearings, is making a substantial investment in additional equipment to produce wear plates of unprecedented sizes, notes CEO Dr Jean-Patrick Leger.
The company aims to introduce 8 x 4 ft wear plates within the next year.
Vesconite has been responding to customer requirements for different plates for many years, and wear plates is no exception.
Customers have
Vesconite Bearings, an innovator in bearing technology, is thrilled to announce a significant achievement – the creation of its thinnest-walled product to date.
This groundbreaking accomplishment is attributed to Vesconite Bearings’ unparalleled technical ingenuity and advanced CNC programming capabilities.
The focal point of this achievement was the production of close-to-paper-thin wear-resistant Vesconite Hilube articulation bearing liners, which have recently undergone rigorous testing in GE90-SW-type bearings at the articulation points of S6000 trams operated by an Italian tram operator.
The leading global copper producer has achieved exceptional results through the implementation of Vesconite Hilube wear-resistant bushings on load haul dump machines (LHDs).
Departing from traditional bronze bushings, the mining company’s adoption of Vesconite Hilube on Sandvik and Caterpillar LHD booms has led to an unprecedented increase in bushing lifespan, exceeding their initial expectations.
Previously, the company relied on bronze bushings and had a mere 1.5 months of operational life. Vesconite Hilube bushings were introduced in December 2022, with an initial goal of extending bushing life to three months.
The remarkable reality, however, has far surpassed this objective, as the Vesconite Hilube bushings have endured for an impressive nine months and counting.
This transformation has been particularly significant, with the Vesconite Hilube bushings fitted to 30 LHD booms in 2023, and only one instance of a boom
Vesconite’s ability to withstand various chemicals has been proven in an ultrasonic cleaning application, where bushings made from the chemically-resistant material were fitted to an ultrasonic cleaning machine designed to handle 170,000 parts per day.
The bushings were fitted to the transport cages on the conveyor.
They were immersed in the cleaning liquid, which acted as the only lubrication, and were in contact with the swarf from the cleaning process.
Ultrasonic cleaners are typically used to clean complex parts
When engineers at Hoover Dam determined that the original cast iron lantern rings built into some of its turbines needed to be replaced, they were looking for a solution to help them overcome the corrosion issues they experienced with the cast iron.
The maintenance team also faced another challenge. The Colorado River serves as a water source for the Hoover Dam hydropower station, and the water in this area is commonly referred to as “hard water” due to its high mineral content, specifically high levels of calcium and magnesium ions. Aluminium lantern rings that were first tried as a replacement, were corroded by chemical reactions with the minerals in the water.
Concrete vibrators are used to remove the air bubbles from concrete mixes to reduce the number of voids, making stronger concrete that is less prone to cracking.
Various vibrator designs are used, including vibrators attached to the outside of steel moulds into which concrete is poured to obtain concrete pre-cast elements.
The concrete vibrator manufacturer that eventually tested Vesconite Superlube had a pneumatic vibrator design that was attached to moulds. The proprietary design used vanes to turn an eccentric rotor to create vibration.
However, in-field trials with different vane materials produced unsatisfactory results since vane swelling, delamination and excessive wear occurred.
Vesconite Bearings provided the concrete vibrator manufacturer with samples of Vesconite Superlube, a bearing material with a coefficient of friction lower than polytetrafluoroethylene and providing a much higher load capacity with ultra-low wear rates.
Vesconite Bearings supplied
Vesconite wear rings should be considered for many of the horizontal split-case pumps operating in the harsh ining and metallurgical environment.
The company’s wear rings are chemically inert in many cases.
Vesconite Bearings, the maker of the thermoplastic that is machined to make the wear rings, has tested its polymer’s chemical resistance to many mild acids, mild alkalis, organic chemicals, solvents, hydrocarbons, oils and fuels, and has a chemical resistance chart that shows chemical resistance for many chemicals.
The polymer
A hydro turbine company based in Portland, Maine, USA, has chosen Vesconite Bearings’ lowest-friction material for the thrust bearings on its free-stream turbines.
The material, Vesconite Superlube, has one of the lowest coefficients of friction of any plain bearing material available, with a coefficient of friction lower than virgin PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene).
“Thrust bearings made from this material were first ordered in June 2022 and installed in November 2022,” states renewable energy application developer Petrus Fourie.