AODD Pump Maintenance: 5 Key Tips for Longevity

Essential Maintenance Tips for AODD Pumps

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Air operated double diaphragm pump, or AODD pump, is a powerful pump that can effectively handle fluid flow without electrical power. Various industries, like chemical processing, wastewater management, oil and gas, mining, etc., rely on these pumps due to their simplicity and ability to handle aggressive fluids in rugged environments.

Proper AODD pump maintenance ensures the facility's continuous operation and worker safety. This article gives you a quick-to-follow 5-pointer air-operated double diaphragm pump maintenance checklist.

What does a typical maintenance plan include?

• Periodic diaphragm examination for wear and replacement when needed: Keep track of strokes with a stroke counter between each diaphragm replacement.
• Check the pump&#;s hardware tightness to prevent leaks and seal damage: Pump hardware loosens with temperature fluctuations and vibrations over time. The operation manual provides the right hardware torque. However, make sure to avoid hardware tightening under pressure.

 

5 Pointer AODD Pump Maintenance Checklist

1. Maintain clean airflow

As the name suggests, an air-operated double diaphragm pump functions with compressed air. Unclean air entering the pump can cause severe damage to the air distribution system (ADS).

If you want to ensure a longer lifespan of your AODD pump, install a regulator unit or air filter unit. It can keep the wet air and contaminated air with particles out of your pump. Clean the air filter on a timely basis to keep it functioning well.

2. Keep the air pressure steady

Maintaining the right and steady air pressure can ensure your AODD pump works at full capacity. If the air pressure is higher, the AODD pump can pump faster than it should. This can cause inefficiency in operations, quick wear of the pump parts, and premature failure.

Your regulator unit or the air filter can maintain your pump pressure. This ensures clean and complete strokes, with all the fluid getting enough time to enter and exit fluid chambers.

3. Routine inspections

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Due to their durability, AODD pumps are used in some of the harshest environments. However, build-up in pump lines is common in some industries, such as wastewater treatment and mining.

Schedule routine inspections and maintenance to ensure clean lines and efficient operations. Depending on the hours your AODD pump runs, you can schedule these regularly, either weekly, monthly, or annually. If you keep an eye on the discharge flow rate, you&#;ll know if there&#;s a change in efficiency. If there is, it's a marker of the need for your AODD pump maintenance.

milldrone said:

So periodically the PLC shuts the ball valve and looks for the pressure switch to be made.

Click to expand...

Just a word of warning for others who may read this thread and thinks about closing the outlet side of a diaphragm pump !!

Don't do it on anything other than an air-operated diaphragm

Mechanically-driven diaphragm pumps are "positive-displacement" meaning that there has to be somewhere for the material in the reducing cavity to go, and if that is closed off, something will "give" (i.e. Break).

Best practise for any P.D. pump application is to have a pressure-relief device, from outlet back to input, in the event the outlet piping is closed-off.

It is also common to put an accumulator bottle on the outlet of a diaphragm pump to smooth out the pulsation of the flow, especially on blending applications. If that is the case, the pressure switch idea probably won't work.

I would go for detection of flow in the outlet. I have in the past used a small and simple "vane" flow detection device. This had a rotor with a magnet in, and a reed switch or hall-effect sensor to detect rotation of the vane wheel. A small bleed flow (using 6mm poly line) was taken from the main flow, through the flow sensor, then back into the main flow. Each stroke of the diaphragm pump would cause the vane sensor to rotate, and I could easily detect the pulses with the PLC.

OkiePC said:

We put a limit switch on them that should change states within a couple of seconds ....

Click to expand...

Detecting the diaphragm movement does not indicate the pump is actually pumping anything.

Just a word of warning for others who may read this thread and thinks about closing the outlet side of a diaphragm pump !!Mechanically-driven diaphragm pumps are "positive-displacement" meaning that there has to be somewhere for the material in the reducing cavity to go, and if that is closed off, something will "give" (i.e. Break).Best practise for any P.D. pump application is to have a pressure-relief device, from outlet back to input, in the event the outlet piping is closed-off.It is also common to put an accumulator bottle on the outlet of a diaphragm pump to smooth out the pulsation of the flow, especially on blending applications. If that is the case, the pressure switch idea probably won't work.I would go for detection of flow in the outlet. I have in the past used a small and simple "vane" flow detection device. This had a rotor with a magnet in, and a reed switch or hall-effect sensor to detect rotation of the vane wheel. A small bleed flow (using 6mm poly line) was taken from the main flow, through the flow sensor, then back into the main flow. Each stroke of the diaphragm pump would cause the vane sensor to rotate, and I could easily detect the pulses with the PLC.Detecting the diaphragm movement does not indicate the pump is actually pumping anything.

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