Pump Research and Development: Past, Present, and Future—An American Perspective

Pump research and development efforts are primarily driven by the needs of the customer. Today, these needs are centered around cost and reliability issues with the understanding that certain threshold levels of performance are achieved. As centrifugal pumps have reached high levels of maturity in most industrial applications, we can anticipate, that in the future, customer expectations will change subtly but significantly. They will demand continuously reducing costs with the understanding that reliability and technology needs will be satisfied. This would lead to a strong emphasis on consistent predictability of performance in the field and to less of a focus on innovations in design. R&D efforts in the past were intended to stretch the envelope to produce better hydraulic performance, to improve mean-time-between-failures, and to operate at higher speeds. In contrast, R&D efforts in the future would be aimed towards cost reduction, accurate hydraulic, guarantees, and flawless performance in the field. In this paper, the R&D efforts of the past, present, and future are discussed in terms of three core competencies, which are essential for today’s pump manufacturer. These are hydraulics (with an emphasis on improving predictability of performance and improving impeller life), vibrations (with a view to providing cost effective problem solving/avoidance capability), and pump designs which capitalize on improved understanding of the underlying technologies.