Flow Control presented yet another successful Pump Guy Seminar last week in Lake Charles, La. The training, led by regular Flow Control contributor and world-renowned pumping systems expert, Larry Bachus (a.k.a. “The Pump Guy”), featured some lively discussion over the course of three days. All told, more than 40 technical professionals were treated to a healthy dose of practical information on best practices for pumping systems design, operation and maintenance.
Among the core themes of the presentation was establishing pump failure as a signal of a problem in one of three key areas: Design/Application, Operation and/or Maintenance. Bachus says while the tendency is to blame the equipment itself when a failure occurs, the problem can typically be traced back to the Design, Operation or Maintenance of the equipment.
“The electrician doesn’t blame the fuse for an electrical failure, so why do we blame the mechanical seal for pump failures,” says Bachus. “The mechanical seal failure is a manifestation of a problem in pumping system in the same way that the fuse is a manifestation of a problem in an electrical system.
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Ultimately, Bachus says pump users would do themselves a huge service if they stopped installing new mechanical seals and took a step back to identify why the mechanical seals are failing.
Troubleshooting the reason for the problem rather than the result of the problem is the foundation of the Pump Guy’s message, and by the end of the training, you could tell that message was getting through to the attendees as they chatted among themselves during breaks. Below are a few choice attendee comments from last week’s training:
- Excellent course! Extremely well presented and packed with useful information.
- This has been the best industrial class I have attended, and I have participated in seven classes in the last three years.
- The seminar was a great learning experience, which I hope to use in my career.
- Very good seminar in covering all aspects of pumps.
- The seminar was very useful for increasing knowledge of basic problems that pumps could be encountering. It was useful in order to troubleshoot these problems.
- This is an excellent course for engineers, and I would highly recommend that companies focus on the depth of their engineers’ knowledge.
- Repetition is definitely key in grasping these now simple concepts. Good information for all crafts
The Pump Guy Seminar will be in Portland, Ore. (Aug. 5-7) and Tuscaloosa, Ala. (Oct. 14-16) later this year. For more details, visit the Pump Guy Seminar pageor contact me at [email protected]or 610 828-1711.For a taste of the lessons learned at the Pump Guy Seminar, check out the “Pump Guy Insights” video series.
Matt Migliore is the director of content for Flow Control magazine and FlowControlNetwork.com. He can be reached at 610.828.1711 or [email protected].
