Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Vol. 31, Nos.

7-8, 1995

HERMETIC PUMPS DESIGNS

Yu. A. Sazonov UDC 621.66

Increasing ecological requirements and the necessity of strictly observing safety laws in the oil and gas industry present
petroleum engineers with the ever more urgent problem of replacing current pumps with hermetic ones. Hermetic pumps use
various methods to exclude completely contact between the working fluid and the surrounding atmosphere, which is why they
have different designs. Analysis of information on available hermetic pumps shows that only two construction methods are used
in practice. The first method consists of enclosing the pump unit, in order to isolate the working chamber of the pump from
the surrounding atmosphere (for example, by using a magnetic coupling in the pump unit). In the second method, an essential
component is modernized to perform an additional function besides its main one (for example, in shielded electric pumps, the
electric motor also absorbs the loads from an excess pressure in the hydraulic system). In both methods, the pumps are more
expensive, both to construct and to use.
In order to search for the cheapest technical solution, a special system was developed, which is essentially as follows.
Two components were selected as the most important in the functioning of hermetic pumps: the working unit and the seal. All
seals were divided into three groups, depending on the type and method of attachment. All working units were divided into
three pumps, depending on the type of motion. Thus a table can be constructed with cells containing information on available
hermetic pumps and their manufacturers. As can be seen from Table 1, which reflects the most characteristic technical
solutions, the whole range of pump construction has not been considered by the manufacturers. Research is being done in the
"free" areas of pump design corresponding to the shaded parts of the table.
In the investigation, we maintained the classic pump design: the shaft, the working unit, and the seal. In the classic
pump the number of essential components located in the pump case is minimal; each component satisfies only one function.
Based on experience in operating pumping stations, several additional technical requirements were placed on the
hermetic pump designs:

TABLE 1
Type of motion of the working unit

Type of seal
Rotational. Linear Reciprocal

Rigid. Shielded centrifugal Jet pumv*

Shielded
electric pump (Trico rotary
(MoldavgidromashCo. Industries, pump [1]
Teikoku Electric Meg.' Inc.)
Co., Ltd) Pump with
magnetic coupling
(HMD SEAL/LESS
Pump, Ltd.)
Elastic, fastened Diaphragm
both to the case pump (PRO
and to the Minent)
._working unit
Elastic, fastened Tube pump Diaphragm
to the case t~kotekhnika Scientific pump (Bran
?roductionEnterprise)Luebbe)
and a vumn with
wave reducer.

*Estimated rectilinear flow of high-flux pressure fluid.

Translated from Khimicheskoe i Neftyanoe Mashinostroenie, No. 8, pp. 10-11, August, 1995.

0009-2355/95/0708-0425512.50 9 Plenum Publishing Corporation 425

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Fig. 1. Diagram of a hermetic pump: 1) gap; 2) spring; 3) slider; 4, 5, 6, 12) relief channel; 7, 10) hingers;
8) separation plate; 9, 11) inlet and outlet channels; 13) housing; 14) cylindrical bore; 15) rotor; 16) shaft;
17) auxiliary bearing; 18) seal; 19, 26) packets of support rings; 20, 23) end plates; 21) ring; 22) groove; 24)
bearing; 25) hermetic chamber.

1. A hermetic pump should be designed to operate with any type of motor (AC or DC electric motor or internal-
combustion engine).
2. Highly loaded parts and bearings in the pump should be removed from the high-pressure zone and isolated from
contact with the working fluid.
3. The velocity should be minimal in friction couplings operating in the working fluid (less than 0.5 m/sec).
A diagram of one of the resultant technical solutions is shown in Fig. 1. The pump operates as follows: An eccentric
shaft rotating clockwise sets the rotor into reciprocating motion. A hinged separation plate and auxiliary bearings prevent the
rotor from rotating around the shaft axis. The contact line of the rotor with the cylindrical bore in the housing separates two
chambers. One chamber is connected with the pump inlet, the other with the outlet. The changing volume of the resultant
chambers causes the working fluid to flow.
The working chamber of the pump is sealed as follows. The pump has elastic seals made in the shape of a membrane,
One end is fastened to the rotor; the other to the end plate. All parts of the membrane move like the rotor, but with a different
amplitude. The pressure drop does not deform the membrane, because the packets of support rings compress it.
The Moscow firm t~kogermet [2, 3] produces mechanical seals which use sets of rings to improve the operation of
friction couples with radial pulsation. Usually leakage is prevented by excluding from the pump design the friction couples that
cause the leak. In this case that problem is solved by modifying the kinematic design of the pump.
Test results on prototypes of the pumps and seals were used as the basis for the production design. The main operating
parameters of the pump are: a 3 m3/hr feed rate, a 3 MPa outlet pressure, and a 0.6 MPa inlet pressure. The pump is
designated for pumping condensate, petroleum, and corrosion inhibitors. Applications of the new technology will be refined
when industrial test results are obtained.

REFERENCES

. "Shielded rotor pump," Inventor's Certificate 1,616,251 USSR, MKI G 04 C 23/02.

2. B. S. Zakharov and N. I. Kulikov, "Hydrodynamic sealing gaskets for rotating shafts in petroleum pumps,"
Information Summary No. 3 [in Russian], Central Scientific-Research Institute of Technical Information and Economics
for the Petroleum Industry (TsNIITI~neftekhim), Moscow (1989).
. B~ S. Zakharov, "Increasing the capacity and reliability of pump end seals for the petroleum processing and
petrochemical industries," Information Summary [in Russian], Central Scientific Research Institute of Technical
Information and Economics for the Petroleum Industry (TsNIITl~neftekhirn), Moscow (1984).

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