Stock Pump Impeller Efficiency Restoration

The challenge

A stock pump moves an abrasive fiber slurry that wears the impeller and the casing from the inside out. As the metal roughens and erodes, the once-smooth vane and volute surfaces turn into a coarse drag on the flow, and the pump pushes less stock for the same energy in. The plant feels it as lost flow on the line and a pump that runs harder to keep up. Left alone, the surface keeps degrading and the unit eventually has to come out of the rotating spares pool.

Our approach

We pull the pump into the shop and assess where the slurry has worn the impeller vanes, the wear faces, and the casing. We grit-blast those areas back to clean, profiled metal, then rebuild the eroded sections cold with Belzona 1000 Series composites so the steel sees no heat distortion. Once the profile is back, we apply a smooth erosion-resistant coating over the impeller and the casing flow path. That gives the slurry a low-friction surface to move across, restoring the hydraulic surface the pump lost to wear.

1. Assess and mapWe inspect the impeller, wear faces, and casing and map where the abrasive stock has eroded and roughened the metal.
2. Grit-blast prepWe grit-blast the worn surfaces back to clean, profiled metal so the rebuild and coating bond to bare substrate.
3. Cold metal rebuildWe rebuild the eroded impeller vanes, wear faces, and casing with Belzona 1000 Series composites, working cold with no heat distortion.
4. Erosion-resistant coatingWe apply a smooth erosion-resistant coating over the impeller and casing flow path to recover the hydraulic surface.
5. Return to serviceWe finish the surfaces smooth and return the pump to the plant's rotating spares pool ready for the slurry.