Pump gland improvement project

Abstract

[Abstract]: The need for this research project has arisen principally due to the economic cost incurred from poor reliability of a pump group within the Rio Tinto Alcan Gove Alumina refinery. This poor reliability issue concerns the glands on a pump group whose reliable operation is critical to the success of the business. This research project has identified the root cause of the problem and in turn provided a solution. The Alumina industry relies heavily on slurry pumps to transport liquids and solids throughout the refining process. The failure of these pumps can significantly impact on a refineries ability to produce and consequently the reliability of the equipment is a major focus. Slurry pumps often utilise tradition stuffing box style glands to seal the wet end of the pump from the atmospheric and are usually the first part of a pump to fail. At the Rio Tinto Alcan Gove alumina refinery the mill injection pump group have been experiencing repetitive gland failures which have been costing the operation approx $12,000 per day. It is these pumps that the project has concentrated on. The critical objectives of this research project include • Identification of the reliability project • Identification of the root cause • Proposal of a solution to mitigate the effect of the root cause. • Implementation of the solution. To achieve these objectives several methodologies have been employed. • Comprehensive review of production and maintenance cost associated with these pumps. • Literary review to examine past works involving pump gland on site and globally. • Detailed failure investigation. • Conducting of an Apollo root cause analysis to identify the root cause and provide the best solution to mitigate it. • Implementation and validation of the solution. With all objectives achieved the completed project has obtained it desired results. Since the solution has been implemented there has been a significant reduction in gland failures with no recorded production losses. The time and capital expedited on this project has returned many times its value.