A chemical plant in Bayport was having reliability challenges with two of their Neptune pumps in a bleach application. The time between repairs on these two pumps was about 3 months. Whenever one went down in the field, they would have to send out for an emergency repair since they did not stock any parts, and the plant maintenance group was unfamiliar with the pumps. The plant had spare Neptune pumps in the warehouse, but were a different style and would not work with their current piping setup.
After Progressive Pumps performed the first emergency repair, we visited the site to inspect the installation and make recommendations on improving MTBR. Our recommendations had multiple steps. First, we identified the root cause of the current failure, as well as previous failures based on information provided by the plant. Primary failure mode was debris in the bleach clogging up the check valves. We recommended some piping changes to their system to eliminate settling, installation of a suction strainer, and proper backpressure valve for the application. To eliminate the need for emergency repairs, we recommended and performed upgrades to the existing (unusable) spare pumps so that they were the same design, flow, and piping fitment as the installed pumps.