PM Task Report

Component Type:
Task Name:

6/21/2010

Pump - Vacuum - Liquid Ring

Borescope Inspection

Criticality

Critical

Duty Cycle High Low

Service Conditions
Severe
CHS
AR

CLS
NA

Minor

High Low
Mild

High Low
Severe

High Low
Mild

CHM
AR

MHS
AR

MHM MLM
AR
AR

CLM
NA

MLS
AR

Task Objective
This task determines the condition of pump internals and suction and discharge flanges that might suffer
erosion or corrosion. Both plant conditions and equipment age are needed to determine if this task
should be stand alone or combined with another task such as an overhaul, older pumps that have not
been previously overhauled could benefit from this task.

Task Content
Borescope should include:
- Inspection of all pump internals (i.e. casing, rotor, cone, and lobe) and inlet and outlet piping for
evidence of erosion, corrosion, wear, and damage.

Principle Failure Location And Causes:

This task is focused on determining the condition of pump internals that might suffer erosion or
corrosion. It should be possible to use a borescope to examine the rotor, cone, lobe, internal casing,
and inlet and outlet flanges.
The various causes for erosion and corrosion in these locations include material incompatibility issues
and contaminants in the pumping fluid and seal water.
- Corrosion and erosion become dominant failure mechanisms for this kind of equipment at extreme
temperatures or if the quality of the pumping fluid is poor or corrosive.

Progression Of Degradation In Time:

Erosion is usually a long-term acting failure mechanism and under ideal operating conditions may not
cause problems for 20 years. However, this time is significantly decreased when operating under
severe conditions including poor fluid quality.
Corrosion degradation resulting from material incompatibility is much more of a random occurrence
unless it is piqued by temperature which acts as a multiplier to its propagation.

Support For The Task Interval And Relation To Other Tasks:

No interval has been assigned for this task because it is most effective when used in conjunction with
other condition monitoring techniques such as performance monitoring which would give an initial
indication of a problem.
The borescope is a key inspection device for older pumps that have not been refurbished for 20 years.
In these cases it may be prudent to perform a borescope inspection every 2 years as wear on pump
internals becomes a dominant failure cause.

EPRI PM Basis Database - PM Program Report

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