Case Study: Pump Bearing Housing – Reverse Engineering & Fabrication

Background:

A crack or any deformation of the bearing housing of a pump can lead to excessive leaking. The bearing housing, as its name suggests, protects the internal pump bearings from damage and stores lubricant as needed. The pump bearings, although small in comparison, play a mighty role in supporting the full load of a pump at full rotation.

We at FSI, recently received a call from our local sales representative supporting our customer at an oil refinery that they had found a large crack along their only spare bearing housing. If the main pump were to fail for any reason, the pump would have to be shutdown, potentially costing them thousands of dollars.

Challenge:

In reaching out to the OEM for the bearing housing, our customer learned that it would take 26 weeks for a new pump to be delivered. Short on time, the customer needed an alternative, and fast!

How We Did It:

We picked up the cracked bearing housing from the customer site. After analysis, we quickly realized that the cracked housing was a fully cast part. Using our FaroArm, we were able to reverse engineer the critical dimensions of the bearing housing to produce accurate weldment drawings of the existing housing. Within one week, the drawings had been approved and we got to work.

Our engineers at FSI developed the best technique for the “inner can” and “outer can” of the bearing housing to be machined out of a solid tube stock. The flanges that mount to the bearing, pump casing and inner cooling jacket were machined separately and welded onto the main bearing body. It was imperative that all joining welds met the weld specifications of the customer to be able to withstand the severe fluid service at the oil refinery.

The pump bearing housing was designed using the principles of reverse engineering, detailed, manufactured, and shipped within a total of 5 weeks. The customer was pleased to receive this much needed critical spare, avoiding a major unforeseen plant shutdown.