Eleven pumps were assembled and in- stalled at the West Closure Complex drain- age pump station in New Orleans.
“We make diff users for other
customers, but nothing this large,” said Terry Lenhart, vice president of opera- tions. “We made some modifi cations to the facility to handle the load, such as increasing our crane capacity.”
Proof of Performance
The West Closure Complex pump station is meant to handle the volume of water associated with a hundred-year flood (the highest waters a city can expect to see on average once every 100 years). The volume of water is too much to test in the field, so pump components underwent strict quality analysis to prove they met specifications. For the propeller and housing parts produced at Bay Cast, the CNC-cut pattern equipment and first article castings were cloud scanned and overlaid on solid model data pro- vided by Fairbanks Morse. “This allowed for a very quick and visual representation of our dimensional results,” Holman said. “On subsequent castings, we used a laser tracker to qualify and quantify the machining and blade accuracy on the pumps and housings.” T e inlet castings produced by
Decatur Foundry were required to pass 100% physical and chemical certifi ca- tion with ultrasonic verifi cation in criti- cal sections of the 140-in. cylindrical casting, which featured 6-ft. diameter openings on both ends. According to Lenhart, St. Marys’
diff user castings had to pass hydro testing for leaks to prove they would be up to the challenge of 800,000 gallons of water per minute. To promote the water fl ow, the interior walls of the part also had to achieve a C40 surface standard, which Lenhart described as a little rougher than the texture of a worn emery board. “We designed the tooling and
coreboxes in such a way to help ensure a smooth fi nish on the fl ow surfaces,” he said. Each casting features seven vanes,
40 | METAL CASTING DESIGN & PURCHASING | May/Jun 2012
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