IMO – leak-free pump
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2007-11-23
IMO AB, part of the Colfax Group, manufactures 3-Screw pumps for non-corrosive liquids with lubricating properties. The company is currently the leading manufacturer of 3-Screw pumps for the marine sector. These pumps are mainly used to pump fuel and lubricating oil in ships, defense industry, processing, power plants and offshore industries. In 2005 the company decided to develop a new series of pumps requiring minimal service but with maximum reliability and safety. The new product was named ACG OptiLine.
(Assignment: Reinforcement, mechanical design)
IMO was founded in the 1930s by Carl Montelius, who also invented the 3-Screw pump. The earlier models of these pumps had a traditional mechanical coupling and a mechanical seal. A pump designed with a mechanical seal always has a risk of leakage where the drive shaft passes through the pump housing. The leakage is at best negligible, but in some cases it may be greater than what is considered acceptable.
For their new pump series, IMO AB chose a magnetic coupling between the motor and the pump instead of a mechanical coupling and seal. The major advantage of a magnetic coupling is that the power transfer between the motor and pump does not have contact and in this way the pump can be hermetically sealed, resulting in a completely tight pump. This means that IMO's new pumps will substantially reduce service costs since users do not need to replace the mechanical seals. Furthermore, fewer spare parts are required, which is better for the environment and pumps will also have a longer life cycle.
"Once the decision was made to develop the new pumps, we realized that we needed more resources. I therefore met with various consulting firms. Oxyma Innovation was the company I had the greatest confidence in," says André Bergström, Technical Manager for IMO AB.
The project was led by a project manager from IMO and two designers from Oxyma that came into the project in December of 2005. Their main task was to develop a well thought out design to minimize production and service costs and achieve compatibility with older pumps. Achieving these goals required that the designers conduct a variety of calculations, including ball bearing life and influence of various media/pollution, cooling of the magnetic coupling as well as pressure, temperature and density calculations in the pump/magnetic coupling. The ACG OptiLine pumps would also have to meet the requirements from several different classification societies.
"So far, everything turned out as we had hoped. Oxyma has high skill levels and takes great responsibility. Now we are working with the next series of pumps," concludes André Bergström.
