Not Applicable.
1. Field of the Invent
This invention relates to an article of manufacture that provides for fast and accurate installation and alignment of a submersible well pump fluid flow sleeve, also sometimes referred to as a shroud.
2. Description of Related Art
Manufacturers of submersible well pumps recommend installing a sleeve around their pumps for many applications of the pump. These sleeves are installed over the body of the submersible pump and motor so that the water flow past the motor is sufficient to achieve adequate cooling of the motor. The pump and motor dimensions are such that the sleeve can be made from common sizes of PVC pipe.
Examples of applications where a sleeve is required are an open body of water, eg. a dam, river, pond, uncased bore hole, or a cascading bore; or if the pump is to be installed below water pumping level. The sleeve then protects the pump from excessive heating during operation and ensures correct velocity of water over the motor.
Ideally the flow sleeve is a tube open only at the bottom, below the pump motor, which ensures that fluid below the pump flows upwards over the motor casing on its way to the pump intake. It should be sized to provide sufficient flow velocity past the motor for proper cooling, as per manufacturer's specifications. There is no standard for constructing the sleeve. Substantial effort is required to construct one which comes close to the ideal. What is needed are the fittings and method to quickly construct and install a well pump flow sleeve which provides for proper pump motor cooling.
The well pump flow sleeve assembly provides a method of quickly fitting a flow sleeve to a well pump with a discharge end at the top, a motor end at the bottom, and a centrally located pump suction, by selecting a piece of pipe of compatible inside diameter and wall thickness for the well pump diameter, and cutting that piece of pipe, 90 degree to the pipe centerline of the pipe surfaces, to a length appropriate for the well pump motor length, forming a pipe section with an inside and an outer surface, and an upper opening and a lower opening substantially normal to the centerline of the inside and outer surfaces forming upper and lower pipe wall surfaces.
A pump centering bottom cap with two or more insertion surfaces arranged to fit within the pipe section inside surface, an end cover surface, two or more well pump centering surfaces and a pump support surface with flow openings is inserted into the pipe lower opening until the end cover surface contacts the pipe lower wall surface with the insertion surface inside the pipe inside surface.
The well pump assembly is then lowered into the pipe upper opening until the lower end of the pump assembly is inside the bottom cap well pump centering surfaces and in contact with the pump support surface such that the pump assembly is completely within the pipe with the pump discharge and electrical connection extending through the pipe upper opening.
Two upper cap halves mating surfaces are then fitted around the pump discharge and electrical connection to form an upper cap, with an insert surface and an end cover surface, and the upper cap is inserted into the pipe upper opening until the end cover surface contacts the pipe upper wall surface. The submersible pump is then ready for service in the well.
In operation, the shrouded pump has pumped fluid flow through the bottom cap flow openings, around the motor with a swirling flow path caused by flow guides in the bottom cap flow openings, to the pump suction and then out the pump discharge.
The objective of the invention is to provide the fittings and method to quickly construct and install a well pump sleeve, which provides for pump motor cooling.
A more complete understanding of the present invention can be obtained by considering the detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
These reference numbers are used in the drawings to refer to areas or features of the invention.
The well pump flow sleeve installation assembly and method is illustrated in
Each flow sleeve upper cap half (102) has a mating surface (208) on each side of the cap half. These are formed with at least two alignment protrusion/opening (210) combinations that provide means for precise alignment of the two halves mating surfaces (208) when the mating surfaces are in contact by the protrusion inserting into the appropriate opening. These protrusion/opening (210) combinations may be of other configurations than the round ones shown. The protrusion/opening (210) may have a through opening, as shown, that permits securing the two flow sleeve upper cap halves (102) together with a fastener, which isn't shown.
The pump centering bottom cap (104) and upper flow sleeve cap halves (102) are manufactured of materials suitable for service in the pumping environment. Molded plastics, various cast metals, or stamped sheet metals are among the candidates for evaluation for manufacturing. Some cast or stamping processes may require some final machining to provide desired dimensions within tolerances.
Operation
The well pump flow sleeve assembly installation on a submersible pump is illustrated in
Those familiar with the art will recognize that the preferred and other embodiments described have other possible variations. The descriptions of the invention provided are not intended to limit the invention.
This application claims the benefit of priority from Provisional Patent Application No. 61/327,794 “Well Pump Flow Sleeve Assembly and Method” filed Apr. 26, 2010, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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