About a year ago, a pilot plant for butyl rubber synthesis was tested in Russia leading to a strong increase in temperature, high pressure and a corrosive fluid.
The challenge in this process was to pump 6000 m(3)/h at 170°C with an inlet pressure of 13 to 15 bar. This was a challenge for the construction of the piping system.
A high liquid flow with high temperature leads to heavy thermal expansion of this piping system. An important decision was to integrate the pump into a pipe bend. Usually this creates problems for pumps since the pipe bend makes thermal expansion very difficult. The outer bend has a larger expansion than the inner one.
This thermal expansion can force the impeller against the casing and can lead to a bending motion in the shaft sealing area.
Friatec - Rheinhütte was able to solve this problem with a high stiffness casing design. The customer has successfully used four units of pump type RPROP 700 in this process.
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Friatec - Rheinhütte Pumps Division is based in Wiesbaden, Germany. www.rheinhuette.de