9 Major Reasons for Line Shaft Bushing (Guide Bearing) Failures in Centrifugal Pumps

HOBOKEN, NJ / ACCESSWIRE / April 28, 2021 / Line shaft bearings do not cause pump problems, unless the wrong bearing material is selected for the pump operation. With pressure to cut costs, many pump manufacturers and pump repair companies have selected inferior quality line shaft bearings in an effort to reduce expenses.

For example, many companies use thermoplastic, elastomer, or rubber line shaft bushings, or line shaft bearings. The problem is that these bearings break down under pressure or elevated temperatures – two things you do not want for any type of pressure items such as pumps. Also, thermoplastic, elastomer, and rubber bushings break down from contaminants such as sand, silt, or grit.

Guide bearing failures can also be the result of other problems that the pump is experiencing, such as a mechanical unbalance of the impeller, or rotor, or the result of high radial loading caused by a hydraulic unbalance.

Major causes of premature bearing failures are:

• Incorrect Bearing Material Selected for the Pump Operation
• Excessive shaft movement caused by cavitation.
• High radial loading because of hydraulic unbalance.
• Excessive radial movement as a result of a mechanical unbalance of the impeller, or rotor.
• Lack of proper bearing lubrication.
• Contaminants in the lubrication.
• Improper machining and/or alignment of the bearing housings, or bores.
• Improper shaft alignment, or improper alignment of the flanges on the pump, the column piping, spiders, or pump bowl assemblies.
• Improper alignment of the pump when mounted to the base plate foundation

Solution:
Use Structural Composite Line Shaft Bushings such as SIMSITE® manufactured by the SIMS PUMP Valve Company, Inc. in Hoboken, New Jersey. SIMSITE® Bearings do not break down under pressure, or temperature and they hold up much better when operating with sand, silt, or grit.

SIMSITE® Line Shaft Bushings are the best guide bearings because they never corrode in seawater, wastewater, sewage, or chlorinated water, and because they are machined from solid blocks of structural composite, which makes them mechanically superior and allows them to hold the shaft more securely and to take higher mechanical loading.

Since hydraulic and mechanical unbalance, are major modes of failure for guide bearings, impellers in centrifugal pumps should be upgrade to SIMSITE® Structural Composite!

SIMSITE® Impellers are machined from solid blocks of the patented SIMSITE® Composite so they do not suffer from mechanical or hydraulic unbalance. And because they do not corrode, or suffer from cavitation, or electrolysis, they do not go into an unbalance.

Contact Information:
John A. Kozel
President
SIMS PUMP Valve Company, Inc.
1314 Park Avenue
Hoboken, New Jersey 07030 USA
Office: 1-201-792-0600
Mobile: 1-201-323-6087
Email: Simsite1@Simsite.com

SOURCE: Sims Pump Valve Co.

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