Vertical Turbine Pumps

Vertical turbine pumps were originally developed for pumping water from wells and have been called deep-well-pumps, turbine well pumps, and bore hole pumps. As their application to other fields has increased, the name vertical turbine pumps has been generally adopted by manufacturers. This is not too specific is designation because the term turbine pump has been applied in the past to any pump employing a diffuser. There is now a tendency to designate pumps using diffusion vanes as diffuser pumps to distinguish them from volute pumps. As that designation becomes more universal, applying the term vertical turbine pumps to the construction formerly called turbine well pumps will become more specific.

The larger fields of application for the vertical turbine pump are pumping from well for irrigation and other agricultural purposes, for municipal water supply, and for industrial water supplies, as well as for processing, circulating, refrigerating, and air conditioning. This type of pump has also utilized for brine pumping, mine dewatering, oil field repressuring and other purposes.

Vertical turbine pumps should be designed with a shaft that can be readily raised or lowered from the top to permit proper positioning of the impeller in the bowl. An adequate thrust bearing is also necessary to support the vertical shafting, the impeller, and the hydraulic thrust developed when the pump is in service. As the driving mechanism must also have a thrust bearing to support its vertical shaft, it is usually provided with one large enough to carry the pump parts as well. For this two reasons, the hollow-shaft motor are sometimes made with their own thrust bearings to allow for a belt drive or for drive through a flexible coupling by a solid shaft motor, gear, or turbine. Dual driven pumps usually employ and angle gear with a vertical motor mounted on its top.