Patent Application
20240110578
Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted as prior art by inclusion in this section.
End suction pumps are centrifugal pumps that move fluid by transferring rotational energy from driven rotors, called impellers. Fluid enters the centrifugal pump at an inlet, where an impeller is located. A motor is utilized to rotate a shaft that is connected to the impeller, thereby controlling the rotational of the impeller. The rotational motion of the impeller generates a centrifugal force that increases the velocity of the fluid so that the fluid flows through the pump casing to an outlet.
The design of the centrifugal pump depends on the type of fluid and the desired flow rate. High capacity pumping applications typically involve low viscosity fluids such as water, solvents, chemicals and light oils. Some typical applications of pumps include water supplies, circulation pumps, irrigation pumps, and chemical transfer pumps.
The present disclosure generally describes an end suction pump that utilizes a semi-hollow stationary shaft to implement dual fluid paths to the impeller from a single fluid inlet.
In some examples, an end suction pump apparatus is described herein that comprises a pump casing, an impeller, and a semi-hollow stationary shaft. The pump casing may have an inlet port and an outlet port. An impeller may be located within the pump casing, where the impeller has a left eye side and a right eye side. The semi-hollow stationary shaft may be located within the pump casing. The impeller may be located about a circumference of the shaft. The right-side eye of the impeller may be configured to receive fluid via a primary flow path from the inlet port of the pump casing. The left-side eye of the impeller may be configured to receive fluid via a secondary flow path from the inlet port of the pump casing through a body of the semi-hollow stationary shaft.
In various examples, an end suction pump apparatus is described that comprises a pump body casing, a magnet carrier, an impeller, and a semi-hollow stationary shaft. The pump body casing may have an inlet port, an outlet port, and a driver mounting face that is configured to couple to an external driver. The magnetic carrier may be located within the pump body casing and positioned to magnetically couple to magnetic material of the external driver. The impeller may be located within the pump body casing and coupled to the magnet carrier such that the impeller rotates responsive to motion of the magnetic material of the external driver, where the impeller has a left-eye side and a right-eye side. The semi-hollow stationary shaft may be located within the pump casing. The impeller may be located about a circumference of the shaft, where a right-side eye of the impeller may be configured to receive fluid via a primary flow path from the inlet port of the pump casing, and where a left-side eye of the impeller may be configured to receive fluid via a secondary flow path from the inlet port of the pump casing through a body of the semi-hollow stationary shaft.
Some example end suction pumps described herein may further comprise a discharge path from the impeller to the outlet port of the pump casing. Also, the semi-hollow stationary shaft may further comprise an inlet portion, on outlet portion that is coupled to the inlet port of the pump casing, and an outlet portion that is positioned about the left-side eye of the impeller.
In some further examples, the semi-hollow stationary shaft may further comprise one or more vanes that extend from the inlet portion to the outlet portion thereof. For example, the semi-hollow stationary shaft may further comprise one or more vanes, or three or more vanes, that extend from the inlet portion to corresponding outlet portions thereof. Some examples of the semi-hollow stationary shaft may comprise one or more of a semi-hollow metallic material, a semi-hollow non-metallic material, a reinforcement material, or a combination thereof.
The impeller of some example end suction pumps described herein may further comprise one or more fan blades located about the circumference of the semi-hollow stationary shaft. The impeller may further comprise an impeller cover that covers the fan blades within the body casing. The impeller may be comprised of one or more of a metallic material, a non-metallic material, a reinforcement material, or a combination thereof.
In some examples described herein, the semi-hollow stationary shaft and the pump casing of the end suction pump may be arranged such that the primary flow path and the secondary flow path each comprise 50% of the overall flow from the inlet port of the pump casing. Some example end suction pumps may include a magnet carrier that is positioned within the pump casing and coupled to the impeller such that motion of the magnet carrier results in rotational motion of the impeller.
In still other examples, an end suction pump apparatus is described that comprises a pump body casing, a magnetic carrier, a semi-hollow stationary shaft, and an impeller. The pump body casing may include an inlet port, an outlet port, a primary impeller inlet, a secondary impeller inlet, and a driver mounting face that is configured to couple to an external driver. The magnet carrier may be located within the pump body casing and positioned to magnetically couple to magnetic material of the external driver. The semi-hollow stationary shaft may be located within the pump casing, where an inlet of the semi-hollow stationary shaft is coupled to the inlet port of the pump casing, and an outlet of the semi-hollow stationary shaft is coupled to the secondary impeller inlet of the pump body casing, and where the semi-hollow stationary shaft has a hydraulic passageway therein. The impeller may be circumferentially located about the semi-hollow stationary shaft within the pump body casing, where the impeller is coupled to the magnet carrier such that the impeller rotates responsive to motion of the magnetic material of the external driver, and where the impeller has a right-eye side that faces the primary impeller inlet, and a left-eye side that faces the secondary impeller inlet.
The foregoing summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. In addition to the illustrative aspects, embodiments, and features described above, further aspects, embodiments, and features will become apparent by reference to the drawings and the following detailed description.
The foregoing and other features of this disclosure will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only several embodiments in accordance with the disclosure and are, therefore, not to be considered limiting of its scope, the disclosure will be described with additional specificity and detail through use of the accompanying drawings, in which:
all arranged in accordance with at least some embodiments described herein.
In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof. In the drawings, similar symbols typically identify similar components, unless context dictates otherwise. The illustrative embodiments described in the detailed description, drawings, and claims are not meant to be limiting. Other embodiments may be utilized, and other changes may be made, without departing from the spirit or scope of the subject matter presented herein. The aspects of the present disclosure, as generally described herein, and illustrated in the Figures, can be arranged, substituted, combined, separated, and designed in a wide variety of different configurations, all of which are explicitly contemplated herein.
This disclosure is generally drawn, inter alia, to methods, apparatus, systems and/or magnetically driven pump devices that employ a dual inlet impeller design with substantially the same footprint as an end-suction pump.
Briefly stated, technologies are generally described for pumps that include a dual inlet impeller design. The rotating element of the pump can be magnetically coupled to a motor to drive the impeller. A single flange design may be employed where a primary impeller inlet delivers fluid to one side of the impeller, and a second impeller inlet delivers fluid to another side of the impeller via a stationary shaft with semi-hollow hydraulic passageways therein.
The present disclosure recognizes that end suction pumps are generally available at lower cost than double suction pumps, but at the cost of reduced reliability and limited use. End suction pumps are used in a wider array of applications, and thus end suction pumps have a higher installation base than double suction pumps. On the other hand, double suction pumps have higher reliability and are adept in low suction pressure applications.
Customers often select ANSI/ISO type process pump applications where damaging and/or corrosive chemicals are present. Magnetically driven pumps are typically designed as end-suction pumps compliant with ANSI/ISO dimensional standards. A magnetically driven pump eliminates the requirement for a mechanical shaft seal and is thus superior in performance in harsh chemical environments. Therefore magnetically driven end-suction pumps are often swapped in for those common process pumps in servicing highly corrosive or toxic chemicals.
The magnetic carrier 320 is configured to rotate the impeller 340 to generate suction during the operation of the pump. The magnetic coupling of the drive is advantageous to provide a seal free pump, which has the benefit of being able to pump corrosive materials without compromising the seals. Magnetically driven pumps do not require a rotating shaft, and thus the shaft is can be implemented as a solid shaft that is stationary. Recognizing the shortcomings of the end suction pump design, the present disclosure contemplates a new design that modifies the end suction pump with a semi-hollow shaft that can deliver hydraulic fluid through passageways in the shaft to the impeller. This will become more apparent in the
The shaft may be made of either metallic or non-metallic materials. Some example non-metallic materials may include, resin or plastic based materials, including but not limited to polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polyoxymethylene (POM), Polyetheretherketone (PEEK), Polyamides, or combinations thereof. Some example metal shafts may be made of steel, stainless steel, cast iron, cast aluminum, or other alloys as may be required for the specific application. Some example shaft materials may further include reinforcement elements such as glass fiber, carbon fiber, ceramic, or other reinforcement materials that are suitable to increase the rigidity, durability, and/or other properties such as corrosion resistance.
The split of the inlet flow to source hydraulic fluid to both sides of the impeller are facilitated by the vanes or ribs in the stationary shaft (e.g., see
One benefit of the described pump design is that the axial forces acting on the impeller are substantially balanced since fluid is delivered to both sides of the impeller. The forces on the rotor are substantially symmetric about the impeller by this described operation.
An end suction pump arrangement with dual inlet impeller has a number of advantages over conventional end suction pumps. One benefit is that in low suction pressure applications dual inlet pumps operate more efficiently than single inlet pumps. Another benefit is that there is improved mechanical reliability from a hydraulically balanced design (e.g., the hydraulic fluid is provided equally at both sides of the impeller) with a fully supported shaft. These advantages are achieved while maintaining an end suction pump configuration that includes the dual inlet arrangement that is hidden within the pump housing. The end suction pump may be desired in that it has a smaller footprint and thus may be less costly to deploy.
The present disclosure is not to be limited in terms of the particular embodiments described in this application, which are intended as illustrations of various aspects. Many modifications and variations can be made without departing from its spirit and scope. Functionally equivalent methods and apparatuses within the scope of the disclosure, in addition to those enumerated herein, are possible from the foregoing descriptions. Such modifications and variations are intended to fall within the scope of the appended claims. The present disclosure is to be limited only by the terms of the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting.
The herein described subject matter sometimes illustrates different components contained within, or connected with, different other components. Such depicted architectures are merely examples, and in fact, many other architectures may be implemented which achieve the same functionality. In a conceptual sense, any arrangement of components to achieve the same functionality is effectively “associated” such that the desired functionality is achieved. Hence, any two components herein combined to achieve a particular functionality may be seen as “associated with” each other such that the desired functionality is achieved, irrespective of architectures or intermediate components. Likewise, any two components so associated may also be viewed as being “operably connected”, or “operably coupled”, to each other to achieve the desired functionality, and any two components capable of being so associated may also be viewed as being “operably couplable”, to each other to achieve the desired functionality. Specific examples of operably couplable include but are not limited to physically connectable and/or physically interacting components and/or wirelessly interactable and/or wirelessly interacting components and/or logically interacting and/or logically interactable components.
With respect to the use of substantially any plural and/or singular terms herein, those having skill in the art can translate from the plural to the singular and/or from the singular to the plural as is appropriate to the context and/or application. The various singular/plural permutations may be expressly set forth herein for sake of clarity.
In general, terms used herein, and especially in the appended claims (e.g., bodies of the appended claims) are generally intended as “open” terms (e.g., the term “including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to,” the term “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” the term “includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to,” etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such an intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation, no such intent is present. For example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of the introductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite articles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim recitation to embodiments containing only one such recitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an” (e.g., “a” and/or “an” should be interpreted to mean “at least one” or “one or more”); the same holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, even if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should be interpreted to mean at least the recited number (e.g., the bare recitation of “two recitations,” without other modifiers, means at least two recitations, or two or more recitations).
Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, and C, etc.” is used, in general, such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, and C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that virtually any disjunctive word and/or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in the description, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplate the possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, or both terms. For example, the phrase “A or B” will be understood to include the possibilities of “A” or “B” or “A and B.”
For any and all purposes, such as in terms of providing a written description, all ranges disclosed herein also encompass any and all possible subranges and combinations of subranges thereof. Any listed range can be easily recognized as sufficiently describing and enabling the same range being broken down into at least equal halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, tenths, etc. As a non-limiting example, each range discussed herein can be readily broken down into a lower third, middle third and upper third, etc. As will also be understood by one skilled in the art all language such as “up to,” “at least,” “greater than,” “less than,” and the like include the number recited and refer to ranges which can be subsequently broken down into subranges as discussed above. Finally, a range includes each individual member. Thus, for example, a group having 1-3 cells refers to groups having 1, 2, or 3 cells. Similarly, a group having 1-5 cells refers to groups having 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 cells, and so forth.
While various aspects and embodiments have been disclosed herein, other aspects and embodiments are possible. The various aspects and embodiments disclosed herein are for purposes of illustration and are not intended to be limiting, with the true scope and spirit being indicated by the following claims.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/US20/64457 | 12/11/2020 | WO |
