Australia Service Success at Mine’s Power Station

As a member of KSB’s Worldwide Pump and Valve Group, GIW is part of a large network of KSB offices dedicated to providing single-source solutions for both water and slurry pump problems for customers all around the world. The KSB Australia office recently aided one customer in the mining industry with a pump performance issue. With our help, they closed the customer’s performance gap (and then some) on site and ahead of schedule.

The problem

The Australian customer came to us with a standard job: their WKT model pump (a vertical can-type, ring section pump), needed service for a serious performance gap. The pump had been running on a 50/50 operating cycle for seven years; however, when the steam turbine ran at high capacity, the condenser created more water. The pump’s efficiency had slipped during operation to reduce the discharge pressure to 900 Kpa (versus the required discharge of 950 Kpa). This gap affected their capacity to extract condensate at their peak output periods and endangered their production potential.

What complicated the situation was that the pump needed to be lifted out for repair due to the limited space in its building. This meant completing the inspection and rebuild under significant constraints. Fortunately, the KSB service team was up to the task! After removing the pump on site, the team completed all dimensional inspections and replaced all the shaft sleeves, bearing bushings, and casing rings. This resulted in a discharge pressure of 980 Kpa, outperforming the required discharge limit for the pump.

Despite the technical challenge, KSB experts and the customer’s maintenance team worked together to complete the job. What could have been a long and complicated process was completed ahead of schedule and with no safety incidents. Within a short period after the refurbishment, the repaired pump outperformed every other in the customer’s plant.

Service success

The success of this operation was due in large part to our collaborative service philosophy. As with any job, we stayed in communication with the site engineering team through the entire project, including site visits and meetings to discuss requirements, timeline, and costs. The Australian team led the work scope and directed the service requirements, adjusting operations as necessary during the refurbishment.

Our commitment to customer success doesn’t end there, however. What puts us leaps and bounds ahead of our competitors is our technical and training support outside of repairs. We connect with our partners around the world to help our customers thoroughly understand their pumps’ faults and remedies. For example, our Australian customer was able to spend time in our Indian factory, working in the assembly and testing departments to gain a complete understanding of how the pumps are assembled, disassembled, and what common faults can be found. Our experts bring the research from our testing labs to the site, allowing pump operators in the field to pull the thread between theory and practice. We provide comprehensive installation, start-up, and training service to all of our customers.

The KSB Australia team is making a tremendous difference for our customers, rising to their unique challenges and offering practical solutions to their pump needs. The team is truly upholding the values and quality our customers rely on every day.

[cta]Do you need pump service? Contact us today to find a local service center.[/cta]