PSS Re-Bores BB1 Pump within 36 Hours
Two weeks back, PSS received a locked-up BB1 pump from one of our major customers along with requests to repair the pump within 24 hours. Our valued customer was facing major problems as they were unable to meet their commitments to their own customers because of this pump and were facing major penalties. The service team in PSS went to work immediately to address the matter.
After opening up the pump and completing our inspection, we found out the casing fits on the pump were all corroded causing the casing rings to be dislodged from the casing fit registers, subsequently locking up the impeller. We proposed to customer to rebore the casing ring fits oversize by 4 mm after observing the level of corrosion and fit in with an enlarged casing ring. Our boring machine is able to easily machine the 472mm casing ring fit, We also designed and manufactured our own boring bar and grooving tool holder, complete with automatic Grooving Tool Mechanical Feed Mechanism. The raw material required was available in our inventory so we could immediately start to manufacture new casing rings. It became apparent that a 24 hour repair would not be possible due to the level of machining required in the pump. We further had to make new steady bushings for the boring bar in order to ensure concentricity of the casing fits.
With little alternatives left, customer asked PSS to start work on 24 hour basis. We were racing against time coming up with ideas on how to expedite the repair. To save time, our machine shop decided to start boring the pump immediately using old bearings on the pump, taking out 2-3 mm of the casing fit material. In parallel, new steady bushings would be manufactured in our engine lathes to do the final boring process. New casing rings were also manufactured at the same time.
The tremendous effort and teamwork by the PSS Service team ensured that the entire boring and machining process was completed within 36 hours. This is a process that normally takes a minimum of 1 week. We were able to cut this time down in half due to the readiness and skill of our machine shop. With the automatic machine grooving feed tool, we were also able to machine uninterrupted for longer period with the top casing closed on the pump. Our field team installed the pump on site only 3 days after the pump arrived in the workshop. The pump is now operating smoothly and our customer is back in business.