Browse by Case Studies

City of Eugene

Situation The lateral forces of the belt drive on the gearbox shaft created an unbalanced load – this created a maintenance headache and cost the City approximately $10,000 per year in repairs. The Solution MagnaDrive proposed the installation of a MGD 18/250 coupling to replace the entire belt system. The proposal was accepted and the coupling installed.

DC Water & Sewer Authority

Situation When a pump check valve failed, the resulting reverse flow back into the pump caused the pump shaft to break. Poplar Point rented different pumps to try to solve the situation (at $80,000 per month) The Solution MagnaDrive’s Maryland/Washington D.C. partner, Das Solutions, proposed installing two (2) 26.5 Vertical ASDs with non-reverse clutches to prevent the pump shaft from

Fairfax County Water

Situation With an oversized motor and only a control valve to control flow, the County wanted finer pump control through either a VFD or a MagnaDrive ASD (allowing them to adapt the pumping system as needed to demand).  As this is a 2300V application, the VFD was quoted at $100,000, a figure at which the County balked.

Ponderay Newsprint

Situation Only the de-inking portion of the process (approx. 12 minutes per hour) required full system flow of 3,200 GPM. Without speed control, however, the mill ran their pumps at full capacity all the time, which is extremely inefficient. The Solution In order to reduce the pump speed (while maintaining a required 50 PSI line pressure),

NW Forest Products

Situation The customer was forced to replace each condensate pump multiple times per year due to extremely high vibration caused by thermal expansion of the pump shafts. The Solution MagnaDrive proposed the installation of VTX-11 couplings as replacements for the existing rigid couplings. Removal of the old couplings and installation of the VTX-11 took less

Nippon Paper

Situation The pumping system was designed to provide 7,000 GPM to the treatment process, yet the process only requires 4,800 GPM. Multiple bypass and throttling valves were installed to control flow The use of these valves resulted in the waste of energy The pumps were required to start at full load from a dead stop.

Minnesota Power

Situation Minnesota Power was experiencing vibration problems on their air pre-heaters. Minnesota Power began re-greasing each coupling during their outages to try to reduce this vibration.  Each re-greasing was only effective in reducing vibration for two weeks; each re-greasing tied up 3 maintenance personnel for an entire day. The Solution Minnesota Power replaced their rigid

NTPC

Situation Each pump was continuously drawing 136 kW, which was more than the motor’s rated power and pump brake horsepower at the design point. The Solution NTPC accepted the recommendations from MagnaDrive’s partner in India, AVJ Engineering, and placed an order for a MagnaDrive 17.0S FGC E-Max. The Results MagnaDrive estimated 10 to 15% in

Beijing Yanshan

Situation The fan was running at full speed continuously, regardless of conditions. Beijing Yanshan decided to implement speed control to avoid wasting energy. The Solution The Company investigated several speed control technologies (including VFDs and Eddy Current Drives) before settling on MagnaDrive’s 20.5 ASD The Results The primary benefit that Beijing Yanshan expected was energy savings through

University of Utah

Situation The University of Utah’s steam plant experienced extreme vibration on their hot water pumps. Technicians had to replace bearings and seals on each pump an average of twice per year. The Solution MagnaDrive’s approached the University with a proposal to install VTX-11 couplings on the hot water pumps. The intent was to eliminate the need to