Fast-tracked retrofit fixes overlooked repair lapses

Fast tracked retrofit
Customer A major energy provider
Location Australia
Industry Upstream oil & gas
Key Services

RETROFITTED PUMPS

4

AGE OF PUMPS

15 years

THE IMPACT

Fast-tracked engineering upgrades restores pumps’ operationality for corrosive processes

The Challenge

Pump fixed with no visibility on root-causes

  • A major energy provider in Australia had been facing issues with its boiler feed water pumps for some time on its onshore sites.
  • Installed in 2012/2013, the pumps had been becoming less reliable for some time.
  • Several of them had already been sent to the OEM’s facility for repair – but, without knowing the root-causes, the energy provider was concerned that the pumps were likely to fail again.
  • While working with Sulzer on other turbo and electromechanical equipment, the engineering team heard about our centrifugal pump retrofitting and root cause analysis service.
  • They asked us to investigate the case. We agreed, and sent our expert teams to conduct a full exploration of the feed water pumps and their environment.
  • We quickly uncovered the cause of the problem: The pumps operated in a wet-pit environment containing produced water that was high in chloride – but many of the components were made of material that couldn’t stand up to high-chloride environments.

As a result, the pumps suffered:

  • Severe corrosion on three column sections
  • Internal corrosion on the disc head
  • Surface pitting and crevice corrosion on duplex stainless steel bowls
  • Excessive wear on two-piece shaft journals and cutlass rubber line-shaft bushes
  • Integrity loss on carbon steel columns coated with Xylan 1424

The energy provider was correct: If these key components weren’t replaced with components made of more suitable material, the reliability issues were bound to return over and over again.

The engineering team needed a new design – one that was more tailored to the environment and designed to last longer. However, they wouldn’t need to invest in new equipment; we offered to use our extensive expertise to retrofit their existing pumps, helping get systems back online faster while minimizing operational costs.

 

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The Solution

Finding the root cause solves the reliability problem – and delivers long-term benefits, too

  • The energy provider needed to get the initial 4 pumps back on working reliably as fast as possible before they caused a major disruption.
  • Leveraging on our local service center’s (Brisbane) comprehensive capabilities , we devised a fast-tracked, customized solution to address corrosion, as well as making a few other improvements that would increase the reliability of the pumps.
  • Our bespoke and targeted solution aimed at restoring the pumps’ components’ integrity and reliability:
    • Discharge head – Initial sandblasting revealed some superficial surface corrosion on this component, so we applied a ceramic coating to the internal surfaces. We combined this with a coating developed to the energy provider’s own specifications for the external surfaces. Finally, we installed custom, waterjet cut, diamond-pattern aluminum coupling guards.
    • Shafts – We reverse-engineered a replacement duplex SS head shaft and pump shaft, using 0.3mm tungsten carbide HVOF (1100HV) on all journals.
    • Columns and bushes – We created a series of replacement duplex SS fabricated columns, equipped with enlarged bores to accommodate some new 3P X451 PEEK carbon-reinforced fluted bushes.
    • Wear rings – We installed replacement duplex SS wear rings, re-establishing the running clearances set by the OEM.
    • Bowls – We conducted a hydrotest of the existing bowls to confirm their integrity, allowing the energy provider to continue using them as a short-term solution. We then reverse-engineered replacement super-duplex SS bowls for a future long-term solution.
    • Transport frame - We locally fabricated a brand-new transport frame to the standard designed by a Regional Professional Engineer (RPEQ).

While each pump was in the process of being repaired, we used our extensive distribution network to source parts across the globe for repairs on the next pump – minimizing turnaround time and delivering results fast.

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The Customer Benefit

Rapid retrofit delivers pumps’ life-extension while avoiding extending downtime

With our established retrofit engineering framework and extensive global distribution network, which are key enablers to fast-track the project, it gave the energy provider access to a reliable, cost-effective solution that delivered:

  • Long-term durability: The comprehensive engineering upgrades comprising of upgraded materials and designs addressed corrosion, wear and root-causes of failure, ensuring that the pumps would continue operating reliably –even in the harshest conditions.
  • Faster delivery: Sulzer’s efficient spare parts procurement reduced lead times – particularly compared to how long it would take to source and install brand-new pumps.
  • Simplified maintenance: In addition to the pump overhauls, we also provided updated cross-sectional drawings, a bill of materials, and Sulzer part numbers for each component – all of which are key for change management. With comprehensive instructions and guidance in their hands, the engineering team will find it much easier to maintain their retrofitted pumps.

Three of the sets of pumps have already been overhauled. Now, there are plans to conduct similar repairs 6 other pumps, further improving the energy provider’s overall efficiency.

 

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