Electrical Submersible Dewatering Pump of 35Hp High Head Medium flow performance didn’t meet
according to customer expectation.
As we were on business tour in East India region one of the client had a telephonic
conversation with us for requirement of pumps in tunneling job. The site was at a very
remote place and reaching site itself was a task, but some how we managed to reach our
destination & our client was pleased to receive us, as he expected technical support from us
that we could help him to solve his dewatering job in tunnel site.
- Site visit:
At visiting the site, the site demographics were very easy, and we were under impression
that we could offer our pump and pumping from tunnel will start & the problem at the
site would be solved. But the tunnel had upwards downwards gradients and selecting a
pump for whole length of 3km with a pumping depth of 20 meters seems to be an uphill
task as the tunnel was already 3km in length and they wanted to dewater it from face
where water seepage was continuous which has created water pockets and moving machinery
in these conditions could give troubleshooting to client machinery. The primary plan was
to dewater the face so that machinery could go in and perform their jobs without wasting
time & days for client. The pump was need of the hour and we had got down to selection
of pump which was 35hp dewatering high head with medium flow pump. The client raised the
purchase order at site and airlifted the pump the very same day and received pump in
next two days at site.
- Problem:
The pump which client had ordered was 35hp and by engineering design pump comes with 6”
inch hose outlet and existing line at site was 4” inch in tunnel which was pumping
water. The client took pump into operation and started pumping by changing the outlet
size from 6” inch to 4” inch the pump didn’t perform as he had expected. The water
couldn’t be pumped out of the tunnel. The client site started to lose confidence in
Sovereign Pumps product, they felt duped by our promises that our pump will perform at
their site.
Third day we got a call from site manager that your pump is not performing as expected
and the flow of the pump is very low, we went throw all our calculations check backend
with factory whether there is any mistake in pump assembly, or we have not chosen the
right pump according to site condition. After deep examination also reworking on things,
we couldn’t understand why our pump is not performing according to published head & flow
by us.
- Remedy at site:
Then we thought to visit the site again, everyone was very furious on us that you have
duped us with wrong product & we were like let me visit the site and if required I shall
take back my equipment, the site manager agreed to do joint visit with us inside tunnel
and we reached the site where the pump was installed and what we understood that they
have choked the pump outlet with 4” inch line. As per our engineering design for 35hp
pump desired outlet is 6” inch line. We understood the problem & why pump didn’t perform
as per published results & flow.
- Conclusion:
Never choke the pump at opening, like never reduce the outlet size from 6” inch to 4”
inch at pump mouth/ opening always take 1-meter-long pipe of same diameter of outlet
size. If you choke the pump at its mouth back pressure is created and desired output
cannot be achieved, in fact it will affect all other parts of pumps which in turn can
lead to failure. We immediately rectified the wrongdoing what had happened in tunnel and
started the pump operation, on starting the pump we could achieved the results what we
had declared and publish.
Hence the client was happy about our engineering knowledge and selection of pump and his
all doubts about us got cleared with our immediate action and solutions.