Maintenance and Care of the Slurry Pump

What is a slurry pump?

A slurry pump is a large centrifugal pump, mainly used to transport media containing abrasive solid particles, and is an essential universal equipment in industries such as mining, chemical, coal, and metal smelting.

In the production process of alumina, slurry pumps mainly transport raw material slurry with high temperature, strong abrasiveness, and large solid particle content, and are therefore also called slurry pumps.

Both domestic and foreign alumina production have encountered problems such as easy wear of flow-through components, short service life, rapid increase in equipment vibration, and rapid decline in operating efficiency, which make it difficult for the slurry pump to complete the workload under the rated load and cause significant impact on production.

These failures of slurry pumps are related to the harsh production conditions and the quality of daily maintenance and overhaul of equipment. To reduce the failure rate of slurry pumps and improve equipment utilization efficiency, slurry pumps must be used correctly and appropriate maintenance and maintenance plans must be formulated.

Maintenance of slurry pumps

As the working conditions of slurry pumps are relatively harsh, it is necessary to ensure that slurry pumps can operate stably for a long time by correctly maintaining and maintaining them, and minimize the influence of working condition factors.

Check the lubricating oil level of the slurry pump bearing bracket every day during operation to ensure that the oil level is within 2mm above and below the oil level line, and regularly replace the lubricating oil. The first use time of lubricating oil for a new pump during operation should not exceed 100h. After the running-in period, lubricating oil can be replaced according to the actual situation.

Regularly check and tighten the bolts of the foundation and pump casing. When the equipment is disassembled and installed, apply a suitable amount of thread locking agent to the bolts to prevent loosening. If production conditions permit, the inlet and outlet pipelines and pump cavity of the slurry pump should be inspected and cleaned regularly to ensure smooth pipeline.

Regularly clean and maintain the equipment to keep it clean, dry, oil-free, and leak-free. If the shutdown time is long, flush the sediment in the pump to prevent it from affecting the next start-up and operation.

The utilization efficiency of slurry pumps and other mechanical equipment is closely related to whether the equipment is reasonably selected, the correct judgment and treatment of failures, and the correct implementation of daily maintenance and maintenance. To achieve reasonable equipment selection, correct treatment, and timely maintenance, equipment practitioners need to summarize and analyze the failures exposed by the equipment and develop corresponding treatment plans and maintenance cycles accordingly. At the same time, it also requires close cooperation between equipment operators and managers to ensure the implementation of the plan, which is a prerequisite for improving equipment operating efficiency.