206 EXPENDABLE PARTS 7.2 PUMP LINERS Jn the 1920s, the cylinders of reciprocating pumps were either an integral par of the liquid end or employed a pressed:-in bronze or castiron sleeve thet required time-consuming and usually difficult removal using hammer and chisel to spit the sleeve. “The use of double-acting reciprocating stu} pumps and then power pumps for circulating drilling mud (and later slurries), usually a severely abrasive serv requiring frequent replacement, led to the adoption of a ““quick-change” renew. able cylinder or “‘iner.”” The loose-fitting liner was equipped with a shoulder that engaged with a short rubber sleeve to serve as a slug packing, being forced against the packing in its recess by mechanical means such as set screws in an internal cage or through the eylinder head. Such an arrangement did not necessarily lend itself to easy removal of liners. Corrosion and packed sand and mud between the loose-fitting liner and the liquid-end bore often made necessary the use of me- chanical or hydraulic jack arrangements either with a puller head that gripped the inside of the liner by expanding serrated jaws or with a toggled head that engaged the rearend of the iner. Such a puller required two jacks working against a “strong ‘back” spanning the two jacks. As a matter of historical interest, the jenny jack (so named after the female jackass) was developed with an open center hole that could be slipped over the single puller rod. Another objection to this liner-retention arrangement was the lateral movement ‘or “‘working’’ of the liner against the relatively compressible packing rubber, caused by the pulsating pressure on the exposed end areas of the metalic line ‘The relative motion between Liner and liquid-end bore in the presence of abrasive sands resulted in rather rapid destructive wear of the liner bores in the liquid end. ‘This was overcome by the use of an additional shoulder on the liner to enable it to make metal-to-metal contact with the liquid end. Opposed lip-type packing rings ‘were placed in the original packing space with the lips facing each other and with ‘4 metal lantern ring between them to provide a small amount of compression for an initial seal, the final seal being provided by the pump pressure. An improved liner packing arrangement was developed in 1970 whereby the opposed pressure- activated lip-type packing rings were installed in a packing space that extended throughout the length ofthe liner, this space being filed with pressurized oil. This resulted in complete protection against corosion and packed sand and also pro- vided the desirable pack-off against clean oil rather than abrasive mud or slurry With the introduction of the single-acting piston-type pump in drilling and slurry service, the means of packing and clamping the renewable liner required a different approach. The usual practice was to install the liner through the cradle opening and force the liner end against a rather hard, fabric-reinforced packing ring in a recess provided in the liquid end. The bolted or screwed clamp sometimes works against a shoulder or flange as an integral part of the liner. At other times the clamp may work against the outside end of a straight cylinder liner, ‘Ease of instalation and simplification of the clamping arrangement can be had |7s PISTONS 207 by designing the liquid end to receive a flanged liner through the cylinder head This precludes the need for clamping against the high hydraulic ram effect working ‘on any liner, since the hydraulic forces tend to hold the Hiner against its shoulder. 7.2.1 Liner Development ‘The value of any liner is the wear resistance of the inside diameter against which the piston runs. This surface must be compatible with the chemical constituents of the pumped liquid and the abrasivity of the solids that may be deliberately added as in the case of drilling mud and slurry. ‘The first typical ““quick-removable’” mud-pump liners were of single-metal construction—cast iron, hardened carbon steel, and chrome-plated steel. Bimetal liners with centrifugally cast or spun hard metals were introduced later. However, about 1950, a trend to 27% chrome iron was recognized by all pump liner manu- facturers. Sometimes this hard metal is centrifugally cast into a liner shell, but ‘ther liners consist of a sleeve of the hard metal centrifugally cast and machined and shrunk into a mild steel or carbon steel shell. This construction results in a liner with greater hoop strength because of the prestressed liner and shell. On the other hand, the sleeve construction limits the maximum size of liner to a diameter considerably less than a spun liner because of the loss of thickness of the sup- porting shell. A spun-in hard facing is usually much thinner than a shrunk-in sleeve and contributes little to the strength of the unit. OF significance is the “rebirth” of the chrome-plated liner. Tests show that a properly plated liner will surpass one of 27% chrome iron. The reason for the demise of the early chrome-plated liner was the poor plating technique and appli cation of a minimal thickness of chromium. Old liners (and piston rods) had a limit of about 0.010-0.015-in thickness of plate. As this relatively thin coating wore away, the base metal would become exposed, and the edge of the worn chrome plate acted as a knife to quickly decimate a piston rubber (or rod packing). The improved plating technique and the thicker plating (which allows the acceptable ‘maximum wear of jin in diameter) results in a superior product. 7.3. PISTONS ‘The following discourse on the introduction of an “improved piston for dling mud service will provide information on the physical action ofa piston and reveal some ofthe pitfalls that should be avoided. Examples of current piston design are shovin in Figures 7.13 and 7.14 A piston with a solid steel back-up plate bonded tothe fabric heel was marketed With the contention that it offered the ability to use several sizes of rubbers on a single siz piston body (a dubious advantage) and it also provided a clearance- renewable feature in that with each new rubber installation the liner clearance was208 EXPENDABLE PARTS ican 4 | ; igure 7.13, Mud and stuny pistons, (Courtesy Fluid King.) i i j brought bac tothe “new” piston condition (Fig. 7.15). Some detrimental effects of having a “floating” back-up plate were observed. (Even though it was bonded to the rubber, it was rather free 10 float radially.) The fist evidence of touble was} the galling that appeared in 27% chrome-inon liners. No thought was given at the | time t0 the possibility of excessive plate “shifting” (Fig. 7.16), but there was) concem for the damage to the liner. It was determined that the galling produced a} “fish-scale"” surface on the liner that was extremely hard on rubber pistons. The {| LEDE Yp ae / fe) ” Figure 7.14, Typical pistons. (a) Double-acting. (0) Single-acting. (Courtesy Fluid King)Backup pate Piston body Figure 7.18. Piston with “back-up” plate. fact that any steel piston Figures 7.17 and 7.18, without plates could still result in the same injury withthe steel body galling on the liner tended to dispel any worry about back-up plate shift However, during the development of a large piston (12-in diameter) for coal slury pumping service, it was dramatically shown that the back-up plate shift was undesirable. Figure 7.16 shows how the shifting of the back-up plate generates, liner and piston wear on the opposite side from the clearance gap due to the high unit loading of the back-up plate against the liner. “The suggestion that the back-up plate be split into segments and unbonded so that it would expand equally with the rubber is not practical, because the rule Fabric extrusion inte cearance ‘ess n rap fore of hea, ‘nd wedging eect Brodvces lore on backup plete ‘This generates wear on backs pat, Se the fare Hydraulic pressure bulges rubber to help ‘enter prston but provides no centering forme Figure 7.16. Piston with “back-up” plate. Reaction to pressure.210 EXPENDABLE PARTS Figure 7.17. Typical piston, applying to any packing system is that the packing ring next to the clearance gap performs all of the packing effects—the remaining multiple rings become pressure balanced and perform no work except to wear out from the initial interference built into the ring. ‘The argument that any piston (Fig. 7.17) can be “kicked'” over by the wedging action of the fabric into the clearance gap (Fig. 7.18) is true, but the ability ofa solid piston to resist this force is so great that there is hardly any regeneration, ‘The solid piston takes this force on both rubbers and a much wider metal face (body flange). The hydraulic pressure on the working rubber tends to “bulge” it cout to liner size for the entire circumference, thereby acting as a centering force uw ee saa Y But force ie counteracted by ris" rubbers an stel Norge m contact ‘ith Tine Oflers greater bearing reo with reduces YT 4 (Ty \\-<— sesfoatietone a sea ae TERE Figure 7.18. Typical piston reaction to pressure74 PLUNGERS 211 Figure 7.19. Improved piston (patented). Controlled expansion (by bonding or vuleanizing to fabric section), high-modulus, gap-closing, compatible-wih-Liner, antiextrusion ring, (Courtesy Chromium Corporation.) for the entite piston, overcoming the side forve produced by extrusion. Such a ‘centering force is lacking in intensity inthe “back-up plate" piston. Accordingly, it appears that the use of any one-piece metal or high-modulus back-up plate is of doubtful value It is surprising to observe that in the mid-1950s, ¢rilling mud pump piston construction including the calandered 18 x 18 cotton-duck fabric plied into about 20 plies (later improved by stacking the plies with the warp and woof at random angles) is practically the same as its original design. This is great testi- ‘mony t0 the sanctity of the fabric with its special properties—probably due to the ability of the fibers to absorb Tiguid and provide lubrication against the liner on the high pressure stroke, not an attribute of most synthetic fabrics, OF interest is a new concept in piston design, Figure 7.19, whereby the clear ance gap is kept at zero by the controlled expansion ofa high-modulus segmental, step-cut anti-extrusion ting. Because failure ofa piston begins with the deteriora- tion of the fabric heel at the clearance gap, this means of reducing the gap will extend the life of the piston. See Chapter 10, Sec. 10.1.5, 7.4 PLUNGERS Plungers are made in a wide variety of materials, the most common being solid ‘ceramic, sprayed ceramic, and spray-welded Colmonoy 6. Forclean water service, solid ceramic offers the best performance, lasting many years with no discemible wear. However, itis subject to damage from abrasive liquids, rough handling, and thermal shock. Spray-welded Colmonoy 6 is probably the most popular plunger212 EXPENDABLE PARTS 1re7.20. Plungers, valves, und pecking for typical multicylinder pump. (Courtesy Fluid King.) ‘material, resisting corrosion and abrasion fairly well, and having none of the ce- ramic disadvantages. Refer to Figure 7.20. ‘There are many other plunger materials, steel, and even hardened carbon steel Plunger construction varies with size. For plungers up to about 3 in in diameter, solid base metals are usually used. Those of larger diameter are usually of hollow or sleeve construction, which reduces weight and cost In horizontal pumps, most plungers have short, quick-connect ends to allow plunger change without opening the power end for access to the crosshead. An extension rod working through the diaphragm packing has some sort of grooved clamping arrangement to allow the plunger to be fastened by working through the cradle opening, using a clamp of some sort In order to ensure plunger alignment, the stub end should use a pilotfit pin and socket, Eary attempts to use a so-called self-aligning connection without a pilot fit resulted in disaster because of the care needed to assure that the plunger was aligned before clamping. Some clamps actually forced the plunger out of alignment 2X), resulting in significantly increased seal set life. ‘The flat back feature now permits the full utilization of fabrie reinforcement capabilities. ‘The standard vee forces a flat fabric into the vee shape quite often causing internal or external folds in the ring. With the FLAT-BAK vee, the fabric plies are now in the optimum wear and extrusion resistant position in the heel of the ring. An additional feature built into the FLAT-BAK vee as well as many other Utex vee rings is horizontal bias fabric construction (See Fig. 7.5A). This creates a vee ring that has all fabric reinforcement plies with equal fiber lengths, allowing uniform wear performance. The horizontal bias eliminates short and long fiber zones in the vee ring. With the FLAT-BAK vec, a single seal can be used with greater effectiveness than multi-vee ring sets, providing lower cost sealing and higher pressure sealing ccapabi 7.5.10 Knitted Wire Mesh Knitted Wire Mesh has many uses such as back-up rings, serapers, fe high temperature seals. A patented process (#4219208) whereby knitted wire ‘mesh is molded in conjunction with homogeneous rubber or other materials (0 act as an anti-extrusion device is available, Knitted Wite Mesh is also available with filers such as graphite, PTFE, and aramid yarns. Standard materials for the mesh itself include stainless steel, cop- per, inconel, and phosphor bronze. Other special alloys are available, and non standard densities can be produced from all materials, |75 PACKING — 228 ek LEAK PATH LENGTH LEAK PATH LENGTH Figure 7.44, HORIZONTAL BIAS FABRIC SHORT & LONG FIBERS (usual construction) Figure 7.54. 11 Packing “Dos” |. “Drip-tubrication” of the plunger on the atmospheric or “outside™ side of the gland is highly recommended AA high volume flush of lubrication oil tends to cool and wash the plunger. A screwed gland provides uniform loading of the packing. See the recommended stuffing box trim clearances shown, Limit number of packing rings to three or four Refer to packing manufacturer for oil type for the service involved224 [EXPENDABLE PARTS. a6 3 Figure 7.7A. 7.5.12 Packing Don'ts Excessive trim clearance contributes to short packing life. Long stacks of many rings of packing are not requitéd for tong life. Bolted glands can result in “‘cocking™ and plunger scoring. Excessive packing compression by inexperienced operators is sometimes dangerous. Lantern rings, with drain holes on the bottom of the stuffing box, invites channelling of oil around the circumference of bore or rings by capillary attraction. Oil may never reach bottom of plunger. . A seal ring on the atmospheric side of a lantern ring is not desirable be- cause it carries the entire sealing load without benefit of lubrication. (Be- cause of the distinct mechanics of plunger packing, the lubricated plunger ‘would be travelling away from the packing ring.) So-called “force-feed lubrication always requires an undesirable lantern ring7.7 CONTROLLED-COMPRESSION GASKETS 225 Sealing mmatersi —_ Uselessmaterial Oring \N\Z NY Metal to-metat @ o Figure 7.24. (a) Conventional gasket, (6) O-ring seal. 7.6 O-RINGS ‘The concept of an O-ring seal came from the realization that in any packing or gasket set, only a small portion of one resilient part ofthat set—an extremely small theoretical “bead” next to the clearance gap or leakage path—i effective in bridg- ing that gap. See Fig. 7.24(a), By replacing the bulk of a conventional sealing ring with a small ring of resilient material as in Figure 7.24(b), an effective seal could be obtained. Thus the O- sing becomes an effective bridge. Probably the shape of the cross section need not be circular. There are O rings on the market that are somewhat square with rounded comers. O-rings are inherently most satisfactory as static seals in close-clearance fits (metal-to-metal) such as flange faces where the clearance gap can be reduced to almost zero. Close-fitting static plug-in-cylinder applications are @ litte less reli- able because of the rather large clearance required for assembly. (O-rings do not serve well in dynamic conditions such as on pistons or in piston- rod packing on high-pressure, fast-moving devices (unless well lubricated as when handling clean oil). Multiple rings in the same groove or space on a piston, for instance, tend to pressure-lock and result in excessive ring wear. They also do not serve wel in stati cases where there are pulsating pressures or minute mechanical motion from vibration, They tend to “work” or move in the groove, causing wear om ring and metal parts. Double seals in such applications tend to pressure-lock if the space between them is not vented. ‘As with any dynamic packing sets, two or more O-rings or packing rings tacked in the same space in a stuffing box serve no purpose in extending the total life. It has been contended that in such an arrangement the rings are sharing the packoff ‘They are not; the ring next to the atmosphere performs the complete seal, and the others are redundant. 7.7 CONTROLLED-COMPRESSION GASKETS Controlied-compression gaskets are superior to O-rings in applications where pul- ‘ating pressure or mechanical vibration is encountered. A controlled-compression