I have a client who needs to change oil in a large gearbox with a heavily viscous oil.

Any recommendations for a pump that will handle the heavy stuff?

Thanks,

Danny Harvey

I know of a hand pump that has been tested with ISO 680 gear oil, and it works well. See www.intelligentcan.com. It's the only pump available on this website.

Hans,

thanks for the link.

These gearboxes have a capacity of several hundred gallons each. Have you ever used this pump to drain that much oil?

This is a union shop I'll bet they are hoping for an electric motor drive pump, but it may be fun to suggest to them that they use a hand pump that requires 13 strokes per liter. At the standard union pace that will require about 3 weeks of downtime per drive.

Danny,
You might consider a diaphragm pump.

Danny, try Y2K Fluid Power at www.y2kfluidpower. I'm 99% sure they will have what you're looking for.

Hans,

Many thanks. I'd say that 99% is a fair guess.

Danny

Danny,

I'm assuming that you are draining, flushing, cleaning and replenishing? If so, put in your flush to thin out the oil and pump - may want to blow it in to mix; on a sealed system you can add air pressure or N2 and blow it out (install blanks, etc...). If you worry, put a pop-off on the input line.

Sam,

Thanks for the suggestions.

I'm not actually doing the change. I was asked to find a source for a pump by my client.

I'm not sure of their normal procedure or if they have one, but I will pass your suggestions along.

Thanks again,

Danny

One other; I had a guy working for me once and we needed to pump 6 55 gal drums with a hand pump. I got 3 guys to take turns but.....the one was a body builder and old style free wgts and worked out 7 days per week doing push-up with one hand while feet in the air vertically; that's right! The guy started pumping and wouldn't let anyone else pump; kept switching hands spinning the thing as fast as he could until he burned-up the pump - true story!!!!!! He was BIG

There are several options for bulk fluid transfer of viscous oils. You can buy a small motor driven gear pump flowing about 5gpm for $250 or you can get a Haight pump (http://www.haightpump.com/) with a 3/4 horse 220VAC single phase that puts out upward of 60 gpm. I built a drum filling machine for our shop using the Haight pump and it worked like a charm! Price was just under $3K for the setup, but I most likely have more involved than necessary for your application.

What are you pulling the fresh lube from? Totes? Drums? AND Where are you sending the old stuff? Filtered? This will give you an idea of what flow you can handle and based on your price point, I'll help you find a vendor.

Lobe type pumps work exceptionally well on high viscous fluids. Many can handle liquids up to 1 x 10^6 cpoise.

John Winterton

Shaun,

That sounds like what they need, but they really don't have the personnel to make it themselves. Fortunately, the do have the money to buy one and just needed some direction I think.

I think they have settled on a pumping and filtering cart that should really help them out. I believe that they were directed towards the lobe-type pump like John suggested.

Thanks everyone,

Danny

We often have our used oil vendor bring in his vacuum truck and pull the oil out into his truck. This eliminates the need for double handling used oil. It goes straight to the processing facility for disposal. When we pump it into drums, we either use an air operated diaphram pump or a Lincoln air operated drum pump. Both work well. The drum pump can then be used to fill the unit once flushed.

Gary B