Fluids are all but useless in industrial applications if they’re not in motion. After all, there’s no strategic application of a puddle. To keep fluids moving, industries rely on a variety of pumping mechanisms for disparate fluids and their tasks. In this guide, we’ll take a brief overview of the types of industrial pumps and their uses—and how we may be able to improve your facility’s pumping actions.

Centrifugal Pumps

Even if you were not a physics ace, you surely remember a thing or two about centrifugal force. It’s all about rotation, and centrifugal pumps use rotational power as well. In a centrifugal pump, a motor turns the rotational energy of an impeller into the movement of a fluid, sending it through piping. You’ll find centrifugal pumps when facilities are working with low-viscosity fluids—more akin to water than molasses, in layman’s terms—that take on rotational force with little resistance.

Reciprocating Pumps

It’s all about give and take here. In a reciprocating pump, the pump collects a volume of fluid and then expels it in a simple but effective mechanism. The most common example of a reciprocating pump is a piston pump, wherein the pressure of the shaft’s seal interacts with the pressure of the piston itself. Unlike centrifugal pumps, reciprocating pumps can handle higher pressures and higher fluid viscosities, including slurries, or fluids containing suspended solids.

Rotary Pumps

Among the different types of industrial pumps and their uses, it’s easy to confuse rotary pumps with the aforementioned centrifugal pumps—they both concern some kind of turning mechanism. In fact, a rotary pump has more in common with a reciprocating pump, both of which use positive displacement to move fluids. In a rotary pump, however, twin impellers rotate together in a gear-like fashion to push a fluid forward rather than one linear impeller. Rotary pumps create high pressure, making them suited for high-viscosity petroleum products.

Punch Up Your Pumping With Moley

No matter its mechanism, any pump is subject to wear and tear, diminished performance, and breakdowns. Your goal is to find one most resistant to those forces while offering no resistance to the pump’s intended actions. Moley Magnetics is among the Northeast’s foremost Peerless Pumps distributors, carrying a variety of horizontal and vertical pumps for fluids of all viscosities, including slurries. Whatever your facility’s processes are, Peerless Pumps are indeed without peer in their performance.