I have met many brilliant pump people in my life and I have been wondering lately… What makes a pump repair expert? During my tour of two Hydro pump rebuilding facilities in Chicago, IL, I had a sudden realization: pump repair experts utilize on-site engineering teams!
The Hydro service center has a state-of-the-art pump testing facility, compliant to API 610 and Hydraulic Institute standards. It is one of the best I have seen – one reason is the sheer size of the facility. They are able to test both horizontal and vertical pumps in custom configurations. Once the pump is installed, it is time to gather data. This is when I recognized that if there wasn’t an engineering team to interpret the data, it would not be helpful data at all. You could run all the tests you wanted, but if you don’t have experienced engineers on staff to analyze the data and determine the best way to help improve your pump’s performance, what would be the purpose of the test? Engineering expertise is the foundation of a quality pump repair and having an independent test lab available to prove pump performance is of great value to the aftermarket.
After visiting the test facility, I was fascinated to learn more about reverse engineering – not parts replication; that’s different. Reverse engineering is the examination, testing and analysis of an item to define and document all of the parameters and critical attributes necessary for production, repair or modification of an item. The organization that performs reverse engineering takes responsibility for the designs and for the products produced from those designs, while a replicator will usually only assert that a new item is geometrically similar (or even identical) to the item being replicated. The replicator usually will not accept responsibility for installation or operation. Having an engineering team on-site to evaluate the pump components, recommend hydraulic modifications and to make mechanical and material upgrades specific to the application per a NUPIC-audited quality assurance program is a value-added service that pump users should look for when evaluating their service providers.
It was clear to me that Hydro’s service centers are focused on engineering pumps for better performance and longer life! AND they have whole team of pump repair experts to help make sure that happens.
For more information about Hydro, visit www.hydroinc.com/
