US 2015/0176591 A1Published application

Thrust bearings for centrifugal pumps

AssigneeGeneral Electric Company

InventorManmohan Singh GULATI

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A bearing assembly for a centrifugal pump is configured to accommodate both forward and reverse axial thrust, and to be lubricated by process fluid. A pump incorporating a dual acting bearing assembly that is lubricated by process fluid and that is located between the final two impeller stages of the pump. A desalination system comprises a pump with an inlet for receiving seawater at a first end, an outlet for discharging high pressure seawater at a second end, one or more impellers coupled to a rotatable shaft between the first end and the second end for increasing a pressure of the seawater, and a bearing assembly lubricated by the seawater for absorbing axial thrust in both directions along the shaft.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A bearing assembly for a pump having a casing with an inlet port at a first end of the casing for receiving low pressure process fluid and a discharge port at a second end of the casing for discharging high pressure process fluid, a rotatable shaft moveable in an axial direction with respect to the casing, and a plurality of impellers coupled to rotate with the shaft, the bearing assembly comprising:

a thrust collar coupled to rotate with the shaft;
a bearing housing between adjacent impellers of the pump, the bearing housing having a first side towards the first end of the casing and a second side toward the second end of the pump casing and defining a central cavity for receiving the thrust collar, the bearing housing comprising:
a plurality of flow ports arranged around a radial periphery of the central cavity, each of the flow ports providing fluid communication between the first side of the bearing housing and the second side of the bearing housing;
and,
a plurality of first side lubrication ports and second side lubrication ports each having an associated flow port, each first side lubrication port extending from the associated flow port toward central cavity from the first side and each second side lubrication port extending from the associated flow port toward the central cavity from the second side;
a plurality of first side thrust pads coupled to the first side of the bearing housing and having a bearing surface facing toward the central cavity;
a plurality of second side thrust pads coupled to the second side of the bearing housing and having a bearing surface facing toward the central cavity;
a plurality of first side lubrication nozzles, each coupled to bearing housing where one of the first side lubrication ports meets the central cavity, and configured to direct process fluid between one or more of the first side thrust pads and the thrust collar;
and
a plurality of second side lubrication nozzles each coupled to bearing housing where one of the second side lubrication ports meets the central cavity, and configured to direct process fluid between one or more of the second side thrust pads and the thrust collar.

7 more elements

A pump comprising:

a casing having an inlet for receiving process fluid at first end and an outlet for discharging process fluid at a second end;
a shaft within the casing rotatable about and axis and moveable along an axial direction;
a plurality of impeller stages, each impeller stage comprising an impeller coupled to rotate with the shaft and a diffuser held stationary within the casing;
a bearing assembly within the casing, the bearing assembly comprising:
one or more annular elements coupled to rotate with the shaft,
one or more bearing housings coupled to the casing:
a plurality of first thrust pads coupled to one of the bearing housings and facing toward the first end of the casing positioned to bear against at least one of the one or more annular elements when the shaft moves along the axial direction from the first end toward the second end;
a plurality of second thrust pads coupled to one of the bearing housings and facing toward the second end of the casing positioned to bear against at least one of the one or more annular elements when the shaft moves along the axial direction from the second end toward the first end;
and,
a plurality of ports through the one or more bearing housings providing flow paths for process fluid to pass through the one or more bearing housings and lubrication paths directing process fluid toward interfaces between the first and second thrust pads and the annular elements.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/136,175Filed 20 Dec 2013
Published: 25 Jun 2015
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification7 codes

F04D 29/056
Shafts or bearings, or assemblies thereof, specially adapted for elastic fluid pumps: bearings
F04D 1/06
Radial-flow pumps, e.g. centrifugal pumps; Helico-centrifugal pumps: multi-stage pumps
F04D 29/0413
Axial thrust balancing: hydrostatic; hydrodynamic thrust bearings
F04D 29/061
Lubrication: especially adapted for liquid pumps

Family

US 9,874,216 B2Related patent
US 2015/0176591 A1This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

Timeline

Citations

Open elsewhere

Building an agent or pulling many patents? Use the API or MCP server instead of scraping pages. Get an API key