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.

The Belzona approach

The pump comes into the shop for assessment of where the slurry has worn the impeller vanes, the wear faces, and the casing. Those areas are grit-blasted back to clean, profiled metal, then the eroded sections are rebuilt cold with Belzona 1000 Series composites so the steel sees no heat distortion. Once the profile is back, a smooth erosion-resistant coating goes 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 mapThe impeller, wear faces, and casing are inspected to map where the abrasive stock has eroded and roughened the metal.
2. Grit-blast prepGrit-blasting takes the worn surfaces back to clean, profiled metal so the rebuild and coating bond to bare substrate.
3. Cold metal rebuildBelzona 1000 Series composites rebuild the eroded impeller vanes, wear faces, and casing, working cold with no heat distortion.
4. Erosion-resistant coatingA smooth erosion-resistant coating goes over the impeller and casing flow path to recover the hydraulic surface.
5. Return to serviceThe surfaces are finished smooth and the pump returns to the plant's rotating spares pool ready for the slurry.