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TIL that some dredge pumps lose up to 30% efficiency just from worn impeller clearances
I was reading a paper from the Dredging Engineering and Research Center last night, and that stat really caught me off guard. Has anyone else ever tracked how much wear actually cuts into your production numbers?
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the_miles19h ago
Yeah "just from clearance gaps" is no joke. A buddy of mine runs a 14-inch dredge in the Gulf and he sees a solid 20% drop after 200 hours on a set of liners. He checks clearances with a feeler gauge every other week now. It's the small gaps that let water slip past instead of moving slurry. Tighter tolerances mean more tons per hour easy.
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