Anthropologists have determined that the tarlike petroleum byproduct known as bitumen, defined as “a black, viscous mixture of hydrocarbons,” was first used as an engineering material sometime around 3000 B.C. Today, more than 5,000 years later, the use of what is now called asphalt, or “a mixture of dark, bituminous pitch with sand or gravel,” remains a foundational element in many of our societies’ most important industrial operations, from road construction to roofing to waterproofing. While bitumen and asphalt have been construction mainstays for five millennia, so have the challenges that must be overcome in their handling. Pumps play a prominent role throughout asphalt’s production and supply chains, meaning that identifying and implementing a pumping technology that is able to meet the challenges of handling asphalt must be a top-of-mind consideration for the operator. To that end, this article will illustrate how internal gear pump technology can be the ideal choice for the most challenging bitumen- and asphalt-handling applications. Since pumping systems are ever-present in almost all industrial-manufacturing facilities and are crucial to the operation of many production applications across a wide array of industries, they are also ripe for operational improvements that can improve reliability and decrease equipment and operating costs.
With the right modifications, this technology can handle heat and viscosity variability.
EnviroGear
04/19/2018
Image 1. For more than 5,000 years, asphalt has been a foundational commodity for many of the world’s most important industries, including road construction, roofing and waterproofing. In that time, asphalt’s manufacturers, handlers and users have also needed to employ a pumping technology that can handle its varying temperatures and viscosities. (Images courtesy of EnviroGear)
Image 2. Internal gear pumps feature a series of design enhancements that make them ideal for handling asphaltic products with a wide range of temperatures and viscosities. These include a large jacketed surface on the pump case and pressure relief valve, jacketing behind the pump rotor, a rotatable casing and high-strength, ductile-iron gear material.
The key to one successful asphalt pump’s operation is a heating jacket that provides these standard-setting features to the operator: a jacket surface area on the pump case and pressure relief valve (PRV) that enables more uniform pump heating whether using steam or hot oil jacketing placed behind the pump rotor, which eliminates a known cold spot that can lead to hard startups and premature pump and seal failuresability to use a jacketed head and PRV simultaneously rotatable casing that allows the operator to use both right-hand and left-hand flange orientations as needed without additional lead times standard high-strength, ductile-iron gear material that improves reliability when compared to steel rotors, all while resulting in purchase-cost savings that can be as much as 25 percent
In addition, these pumps have been designed to be the world’s first drop-in replacements for competitive models. Components are also part-for-part interchangeable with one competitive model with very specific design enhancements where required to improve reliability.
The design also builds on the features of the manufacturer’s other internal gear pump models: compatibility with packed-gland, mechanical and triple-lip seals, ability to repair or replace seals without taking the pump out of service, idler gear that is driven by the rotor/shaft assembly, reversible rotor/shaft assembly that allows pumping in any direction
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