1 The length and weight of a pump with

product-lubricated bearings differ clearly from those of a pump

with conventionally lubricated bearings.

Product-lubricated
Pump Bearings
Pumps can be designed compact and attain higher
ERWIN LEIBUNDGUT efficiency if their bearings are lubricated with the
SULZER PUMPS product being pumped. Demands on the bearing parts
are exacting, however. Sulzer Pumps have now brought
horizontal pumps with product-lubricated bearings to
the production stage.

The strongest arguments for

pumps with product-lubri-
cated bearings are the reduced
space requirements (Fig. 1), lower
weight, improved efficiency and
reduced maintenance demands.
By using product-lubricated bear-
ings, the length of the pump can be
reduced by 20 to 30%. The weight
can likewise be reduced by about
the same proportion.
Apart from the advantages when
installing the pump in a confined
space, the shortened length affects
the reliability of the pump too. The
reduced distance between the
pump bearings allows a shorter
pump shaft to be used, greatly
reducing the shaft flexure and with
it the danger of the rotor touching
the casing parts.
2 Pumps with product-lubricated
bearings are employed on oil plat-
forms for water injection by virtue of
their compact design, lower weight
and reduced maintenance demands.
The improved efficiency results
from the fact that lubrication by
a pumping medium like water
involves far less resistance than a
conventional oil film. Furthermore,
with this type of pump no mechan-
ical seal is needed on the non-drive
side, so that this mechanical resis-
tance is eliminated as well as the
maintenance otherwise necessary.
More efficient, smaller and lighter
high-performance pumps are
demanded for applications where
size, weight, energy and mainte-
nance requirements are decisive
criteria. Offshore platforms are
one example (Fig. 2), where
already many pumps with product-
lubricated bearings are being used
for water injection (Fig. 3).
Pumps with oil-lubricated sleeve

8 SULZER TECHNICAL REVIEW 3/98 3789

 MATERIALS FOR PRODUCT-LUBRICATED BEARINGS
Material combination Operating Purity of Wear resistance Complexity
temperature pumping medium under bearing load of design

Bearing bush Bearing sleeve

(stator) (rotor)

SiC SiC high with abrasive high high

particles

SiC SUMESOL 220 medium to high with particles medium to high medium

Steel PEEK low to medium clean medium low

bearings need an external oil sup-
ply, which is superfluous when
product-lubricated bearings are
employed. This means a further
reduction in space and mainte-
nance demands.
EXACTING REQUIREMENTS
FOR SLIDING SURFACES
If the pumping medium is water
for example, the lubricating film in
the product-lubricated bearing of a
pump is up to ten times thinner
than the film set up by a standard
lubricant. Consequently, there is
more likely to be contact between
the bearing elements, which must
therefore possess special surface
properties:
The bearing parts sliding
against each other must have as
little friction resistance as possi-
ble, plus
very high wear resistance.
great care, which is also called for composite coating material devel-
in their maintenance. Moreover, oped by Sulzer Innotec surpasses
SiC may be subjected to only small the previously usual friction prop-
tensile loads, also its thermal erties and wearing behaviour of
expansion coefficient is distinctly surfaces in product-lubricated
lower than that of steel, rendering pump bearings.
difficult the use of this ceramic
material for the bearing sleeve on Innovation by Sulzer Innotec
the shaft of pumps operating at The inherent sensitivity of SiC
high temperatures. when assembling the pump bear-
Consequently, coated steel bearing ings or administering mainte-
sleeves began to find favour nance in situ persuaded Sulzer
instead of SiC. Now, however, a Innotec to look for new coating
3 Section through a horizonal barrel-casing pump fitted with product-
lubricated bearings. The Sulzer TwistLock system enables the rotor together
with its bearings to be changed
easily if necessary.

ONEROUS MATERIAL
REQUIREMENTS
Since the mid-1980s, parts of prod-
uct-lubricated bearings have been
produced from sintered silicon car-
bide (SiC) a ceramic material.
SiC withstands high compressive
loads, is extremely hard and may
be used in nearly all liquids
pumped. On the other hand, it is
very brittle. Therefore, the bearing
parts must be assembled with

SULZER TECHNICAL REVIEW 3/98 9

 INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION

SUMESOL 220 is the fruit of collaboration
between various enterprises of the Sulzer Group.
Sulzer Pumps voiced their need
for a coating to meet specific
requirements, Sulzer Innotec
developed a corresponding coat-
ing and validated it up to the pro-
totype, and Sulzer Metco then
applied it on production parts.
Sulzer Innotec is also testing the
SUMESOL coatings for other
applications, for example with a pin-disk tribome-
ter to simulate the running behaviour of material
combination under inadequate oil lubrication
(Fig.). Here, SUMESOL 220 came out easily the
best with a load capacity approaching 100 N/mm2.
The next best coating type did no better than about
45 N/mm2.
But the surface properties are not decided by the
material alone: the application technique also
plays a major role. It is here that the Sulzer Metco
know-how makes itself felt. It is intended that
other enterprises of the Sulzer Group will make
use of SUMESOL 220 in their products.

materials and techniques. Various (see box Collaboration). This

4 The Sulzer Pumps test stand.
Here, prototypes have to prove them-
selves under realistic conditions.
protective coatings were developed
with a variety of compositions, and
tested on a pump test stand set up
for this purpose (Fig. 4).
At the end of these tests, the coat-
ing designated SUMESOL 220
emerged as the best of its kind
coating, developed by Sulzer
Innotec and now marketed by
Sulzer Metco, has a thickness from
0.3 to 0.4 millimetres.
With its surface quality and wear
resistance, coupled with unprob-
lematical handling of the bearing
parts in assembly and mainte-
nance, it can claim decisive advan-
tages over SiC. In addition, bear-
ing sleeves can be produced much
cheaper by this process (Fig. 5).
Very soon, bearing elements of
PEEK (polyether ether ketone a
carbon-fibre-reinforced polymer)
will be available for another type of
product-lubricated bearing. This
material is distinguished especial-
ly by its good running behaviour
under dry friction. This makes a
pump less susceptible to frequent
starting and stopping. Moreover,
PEEK is particularly resistant to
chemical influences. A prototype
with PEEK bearing sleeves has
already succesfully completed its
first 2000 hours of industrial oper-
ation (Fig. 6).
By virtue of their specific proper-
ties, each of these three materials
SiC, SUMESOL 220 and PEEK
has its particular application

10 SULZER TECHNICAL REVIEW 3/98

 5 The SUMESOL 220 coating developed by Sulzer Innotec and produ-
ced by Sulzer Metco is particularly low-friction and wear-resistant (left). By
comparison, a SiC bearing sleeve (right) after comparable operational loa-
dings.

area. They do not compete but com- FOR MORE DETAILS

plement each other, and they may Sulzer Pumpen AG
also be used in combination (see Erwin Leibundgut
box: Materials). Postfach
CH-8404 Winterthur
FOR ALL LIQUIDS Switzerland
The possible applications for Telephone +41 (0)52-262 85 92
pumps with product-lubricated Fax +41 (0)52-262 01 80
bearings are wide-ranging. In prin- E-mail erwin.leibundgut
ciple, all liquids are suitable for @sulzer.ch
lubrication, provided they do not
corrode the materials employed.
Pumps with product-lubricated
bearings may be horizontal or ver-
tical, in multistage centrifugal
pumps also in combination with
the Sulzer Permavor permanent
magnet lift-off device, which coun-
teracts the axial thrust and pre-
vents contact with the balancing
disk and counterdisk, above all
where frequent starting and stop-
ping are involved.
The market for pumps with prod-
uct-lubricated bearings has
opened first for water injection on
offshore platforms. Further appli-
cations lie in thermal power sta-
tions, above all combined cycle
(boiler feed pumps, condensate
pumps), liquefied gas pumping 6 The friction surface of this
(loading and storage pumps) and product-lubricated bearing sleeve
refineries. is made of PEEK.

SULZER TECHNICAL REVIEW 3/98 11