How to do Asphalt Pump Repair – January 2021

Asphalt Pump in Need of Repair?

Do you need asphalt pump repair and reconditioning?  Make sure you are ready for road repairs. Edelmann & Associates, Inc serves Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota and western Wisconsin with the expertise to get your asphalt pumps operating at peak performance.  We are an authorized repair center for Viking Pump, and can service most of the pump brands.

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How to do Asphalt Pump Repair

Here are the steps we follow to repair and recondition Asphalt Pumps.

1. First we remove all of the hardened asphalt.
2. We disassemble the pump, melt the asphalt and then thoroughly clean the pump in a solvent bath.
3. We prime, then paint any parts that need it,  replace any worn out parts, and re-assamble the pump.
4. We return the pump to you and you are back in business.

Here is our most recent Before and After project.

Watch our asphalt repair video for more detailed pictures of a pump repair in process.

Viking Asphalt Pump Details

In addition to asphalt pump repair, Edelmann also offers new asphalt pumps from Viking Pump. These pumps are ideal for any asphalt processing applications. Viking Pump has been building asphalt pumps for over 100 years. They offer many different configurations of internal gear asphalt pumps to fit your application.

• • Refineries (resids, asphalt/bitumen, pitch)
  • Terminals (straight-run, cutbacks, emulsions, PMA)
  • Roofing Manufacturers (flux, blown asphalt, PMA, coating asphalt, seal-down, laminate)
  • Transportation (loading/unloading ships, barges, rail cars, tanker trucks)
  • Hot Mix Plants (cutbacks, emulsions)
  • Sealant packaging, tar kettles, distributor trucks, pipe lining, etc.

Viking Pump also has pumps for roofing plant utilities, including fuel oil for boilers and backup generators, heat transfer oil, knockdown tank liquids and more.

How Asphalt Pumps Work

Most asphalt pumps use a packed gland to minimize leakage along the shaft. The benefits of a packed gland are that it offers the lowest cost among the seal options, greatest simplicity, and greatest reliability, especially if pumps are occasionally started before the asphalt is completely melted inside. Packing handles any viscosity and temperature (using high temp packing above 500°F). The gland must be loose enough, though, to allow some leakage for cooling and lubrication, which is the primary negative.  A rate of one drop per minute is common.  Leaked asphalt can be collected and recycled using a trough and bucket.  Viking Pump asphalt pumps offering packing include the 34 Series, 224A and 124E Series.

Mechanical seals, lip seals and seal-less mag drives prevent most liquid leakage at the shaft. Mechanical seals generally feature a stationary face mounted to the pump and a rotating face mounted to the shaft, held in contact by a spring to prevent leakage between the two faces. Most mechanical seals are not suitable for asphalt because the faces can stick together during downtime and be damaged at startup. All mechanical seals are more susceptible to damage from cold start, overpressure or operator error than packing, so it’s critical to ensure that adequate temperature is achieved before starting pump. Viking Pump has proven out a number of seal types on roofing asphalts to provide assurance of suitability in the application.

Seal options for clean asphalt (flux, blown, PMA, unfilled seal down and adhesive)include:

• • Cartridge triple lip seal with low-pressure steam quench –steam helps ensure that asphalt in the seal is melted prior to startup
  • Cartridge single mechanical seal with low-pressure steam quench –steam helps ensure the seal faces don’t stick together at startup
  • Sealless Mag Drive -infrequently used on asphalt due to higher cost, these pumps, in the 8124A series, prevent leakage by hermetically sealing asphalt in the pump, and using a magnetic coupling to turn the drive shaft

Seal options for filled asphalt (coating asphalt, filled seal down, filled adhesive)include:

• • Behind-the-rotor,abrasive liquid single mechanical seal on 4224BSeries pumps –drive pins help ensure the stationary seat stays stationary and the rotary seat rotates on startup,with tungsten carbide faces for abrasion resistance (available from H through QS sizes)
  • Cartridge dual metal bellows seals with hard inboard faces and nitrogen-pressured barrier fluid on the 4224A and 4124ESeries (note that 224A & 124E Series packed pumps can be easily be converted to4224A & 4124E mechanical seal pumps in the field, and vice versa).

Viking Pump also has just released their NEW 1224A-ASP and 1324A-ASP pumps, designed with an O-Pro Seal as standard and a 3 year limited warranty.

They are available in two models, ASP1 for clean non-abrasive liquids and ASP2 for abrasive applications.

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