Vesconite Hilube in Pumps for dimensional stability, zero delamination and low friction

Vesconite bushings replace bronze in highly abrasive ash water-reclamation pump

More than 50 years ago, Vesconite bushings helped solve a wear problem in a submerged pump at a South African Railways (SAR) water-reclamation plant in Bloemfontein, South Africa – and far exceeded the lifespan of the bronze bushings that were replaced. The pump handled approximately 500,000 gallons (2.3 million litres)…

Vesconite bearings were successfully installed in vertical-spindle sump pumps operating in a paper manufacturing plant that handles dirty process water, demonstrating their suitability for demanding industrial pumping environments. Three vertical sump pumps were fitted with Vesconite shaft support bearings to improve reliability and performance in abrasive, water-lubricated conditions. The pumps…

Visitors enjoying the thrill of body surfing or simply splashing in the waves at Sun City’s iconic Roaring Lagoon, in South Africa, may not realise the precision engineering working beneath the surface to create the perfect wave. At the heart of this hydraulic spectacle are axial flow pumps, three of…

In the early 1980s, the Free State goldfields of South Africa were at the height of their productivity, with deep-level mining operations requiring robust, high-capacity equipment to manage water and ensure continuous ore extraction. At the time, Ray’s Pumps and Service, a Welkom-based company formed 26 years earlier and employing…

Vesconite Bearings is pleased to confirm that its long-established Standard Vesconite bearing material is completely free of PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) and has been since its development in 1969. This includes the absence of PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene), a commonly used fluoropolymer that is now increasingly targeted under international environmental legislation…

An Italian pump manufacturer has ordered Vesconite Hilube line shaft bushings following a successful efficiency test conducted at its pump’s Best Efficiency Point (BEP). The manufacturer incorporated Vesconite Hilube bushings into one of its submersible pump designs and tested a pump continuously for 40 hours at its most efficient operating…

When a US hospital began experiencing repeated failures with its vertical turbine booster pumps, a company specialising in everything from new well design and construction to pump installation and maintenance was brought in to identify and resolve the issue. The hospital had been allocating significant time and resources to ongoing…

A supplier of premium products and services to the oil and gas service industry has made repeat purchases of Vesconite Hilube bushings for Roper gear pumps, following the successful in-field performance of the bushings on the pumps’ drive and the driven (idler) gear shafts. The company initially tested Vesconite Hilube…

An Australian company that supplies a comprehensive selection of mechanical seals as well as engineered sealing solutions to various Australian industries has found that a Vesconite throttle bushing can extend the life of seals. A typical single-stage pump includes a throttle bushing that is located below the sealing mechanism. The…

A US-based company specialising in services for the water and wastewater, industrial, power generation and building services sectors has voiced its strong endorsement of Vesconite Hilube pump components after a successful year of use in a key US municipal contract. The company, which provides expert repair and refurbishment services, has…

Vesconite Bearings’ Hitemp 160 vanes have shown outstanding performance and durability under extreme operating conditions in Zambia’s sanitation sector. Since their installation in June 2024 on two 10,000-litre septic tank trucks operated by Lunem Enterprises, these high-temperature-resistant vanes have demonstrated resilience and efficiency in daily high-demand applications, enabling Lunem to…

Hitemp 160 line shaft bearings have demonstrated reliability in a high-temperature vegetable oil pump application. This is according to a European pump manufacturer, which used these bearings in centrifugal vertical pumps that transport vegetable oil at 110°C. These pumps, installed in food production facilities in Belgium and the Netherlands, are…

A US original equipment manufacturer (OEM) has integrated Vesconite low-friction wear-resistant materials into its product lines for several decades. This is according to a seasoned OEM pump development engineer, who notes that Vesconite’s durability and versatility make it particularly useful in harsh environments and challenging applications involving dirty water, hot…

One of Vesconite Bearings’ innovative bushing materials, Vesconite Hilube, has assisted a US pump manufacturing company on the Gulf Coast cope with its harsh and highly-corrosive operating environments, which pose significant challenges for pump systems. Before switching to Vesconite Hilube line shaft bushings, the pumps relied on materials like bronze,…

An Australian company that specialises in both on-site and off-site pump refurbishment is finding that energy efficiency is an important driver in its refurbishment packages – and has included South African-manufactured Vesconite bushings as part of its energy-reducing refurbishment package. FITT Resources’ Daniel Hechter said in 2017 that electricity costs…

There is a growing adoption of Vesconite and Vesconite Hilube no-swell, wear-resistant lower bushings in Archimedes screw applications. Vesconite and Vesconite Hilube bushings with inner diameters of 100 mm, 115 mm, 130 mm, 165 mm and 202 mm have been successfully installed in various operations. These bushings have been recorded…

Vesconite Bearings is celebrating more than 20 years of successful applications in sewage processing plants. One of Vesconite’s early triumphs in this sector dates back over two decades, involving the supply of the bottom bushings for Archimedes screws manufactured by a company in the Netherlands for a customer in Austria. This…

At a Gulf Coast seawater cooling pump station, the resilience of Vesconite Hilube bearings in hypochlorite came to the forefront, showcasing their superiority in challenging environments. Sodium hypochlorite, commonly known as bleach, is a staple in water treatment and cooling systems and is hailed for its potent disinfectant, anti-microbial and…

Over the past six years, Vesconite Bearings has witnessed a significant uptick in its supply of bearings to Mexico — a testament to the growing recognition of Vesconite Hilube’s superiority over bronze. For decades, bronze had been the go-to material for manufacturing plain pump bearings in Mexico. Numerous local bronze foundries had historically been the…

Vesconite Hilube NSF61-approved wear rings will be featured in an NSF61-approved submersible pump series developed by a well-known European original equipment manufacturer (OEM). The pump company confirmed that the pump series had been certified as NSF61 compliant. The quality assurance manager at the European pump OEM expressed satisfaction with the…

Vesconite Bearings has recently produced what is believed to be both the smallest and largest vanes in its history. This achievement underscores Vesconite Bearings’ commitment to the vital engineering part that is used in air motors, vacuum pumps and concrete vibrators, ensuring their efficiency, reliability and performance. In June, Vesconite…

Vesconite wear rings should be considered for many of the horizontal split-case pumps operating in the harsh South African mining and metallurgical environment. Indeed, the company’s wear rings are chemically inert in many cases. Vesconite Bearings, the maker of the bearing materials that are machined to make the wear rings,…

A Turkish OEM that supplied a Nile River project with one of its pumps that had been fitted with Vesconite Hilube polymer components in late 2018 reports that the line shaft bushings continue to operate well. The OEM uses Vesconite Hilube in many of its most challenging projects, and this…

LPG project uses Vesconite bushings

The first “Gas-in-a-Box” system, allowing users to fill small liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders, was deployed in 2016 in Cape Town, South Africa. The system was developed to fulfil a need for safe gas filling in rural and informal settlements in Southern Africa. The system’s pumps were fitted with Vesconite…

Vesconite Hilube no-swell lubrication-free bearings will be installed as the ladder pump bearings on a dredge that is currently undergoing a major maintenance overhaul. This follows a field trial where the dredge owner installed the Vesconite Hilube bearings side-by-side with a competing elastomeric bearing material. The test started in May…

The largest New Zealand gas-fired thermal power station continues to use no-swell self-lubricating Vesconite Hilube bearings in its cooling water feeder pumps. The power station did a full refurbishment of these pumps in December 2022 and installed Vesconite Hilube bearings, which currently have a life of nine years in the…

There are times when a simple pump design and less maintenance are preferred by pump users, especially in messy dirty wastewater applications. Such was the case with one wastewater plant operator in South Africa, which was being called in every couple of weeks to remove, disassemble and clean wastewater pumps…

Labyrinth seals can now be ordered from Vesconite Bearings using client specifications.

A desalination plant in the Middle East commissioned a 6 MW pump with a Vesconite labyrinth seal in 2022. This is according to the product manager at a large Austrian technology company tasked with designing the pump. His company advertises that “thanks to today’s state-of-the-art technologies, potable water and desalination…

Vesconite aids with plant cooling

A global petrochemical company, headquartered in South Korea, has ordered 20 pump bushings made of Vesconite Hilube, a premier-grade bearing material. The bushings will go into vertical-turbine pumps that supply sea water to a petrochemical plant for cooling purposes. The order for suction, line-shaft and pump-bowl bushings, is made up…

Keeping a golf course lush and emerald green is an important consideration for any golf course maintenance or irrigation engineer. As a result, when a well-known original equipment manufacturer’s pumps’ wear parts were consistently failing, and resulting in less than optimum greens and fairways, a South African golf-course irrigation company…

WRAS approves Vesconite's Hitemp 160

High-temperature-resistant bearing material Hitemp 160 has been certified for contact with water up to 65ºC (150ºF). This is according to the maker, Vesconite Bearings, which informs that the bearing and wear material has been approved by the Water Regulations Approval Scheme (WRAS). WRAS is an independent UK certification body for…

In the coming months, a Turkish geothermal plant will be installing Vesconite’s high-temperature bearing material known as Hitemp 160. Specially designed for pump bearings, this new material may be used in the high temperature range of 160 – 200ºC depending on the chemicals in the solution. The installation follows an…

Keeping drinking water lead free

Vesconite Bearings has created a lead-free-water webpage to outline how the company aims to reduce lead exposure from drinking water. View the page: https://www.vesconite.com/solutions/keep-drinking-water-lead-free/ This webpage was motivated by global concerns over safe drinking water, and is to be launched in March 2022, in a month in which World Plumbing…

Vesconite Hilube bowl, stuffing box, suction and line-shaft bearings continue to operate in a condensate pump in the US ten years after installation. This is according to Vesconite Bearings pump representative Charlie Simpson, who returned last month from a six week Mexico and US customer-calling tour in which he visited…

Several polystyrene factories use liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) pumps with Vesconite piston-rod bushings being used as a bush and wiper to clean the shafts and keep the contaminants out of the pump. The bushings are used in Mevaco pumps which supply butane from the butane bulk tanks to the machines…

Some 2,000 pump bushings have been ordered for a new vertical turbine range that is being developed by a Texas pump manufacturer. The pump manufacturer has been a client of Vesconite Bearings since June 2012, ordering wear-resistant Vesconite Hilube bushings for applications that call for small clearances in sometimes abrasive…

New high-temperature bearing material

Custom-made wear-resistant low-friction Vesconite bearings and wear pads are being trialled on a BEISS tyre stripper machine by a company in the thriving tractor-tyre-changing industry. The trial, conducted in Bultfontein, South Africa, at a company that specialises in tractor-tyre stripping and replacement, aims to prove the efficiency and durability of…

An engineered polymer traditionally used for bearings has reduced fire risks on solvent extraction (SX) plants. The polymer, Vesconite, has been installed by SAM Engineering on base plates upon which its centrifugal pumps are mounted. The motors are flame proof; they are ATEX certified, a European safety standard for electrical equipment in hazardous…

Repair work at the Hammanskraal Drinking Water Project in Tshwane, South Africa, has included replacement of the lower bearing on an Archimedes screw with a Vesconite Hilube polymer bearing. The bearing has a 202 mm inner diameter, a 300 mm outer diameter and is 407 mm long. The bottom bearing shaft…

A starch and glucose producer in South Africa fitted Vesconite wear-resistant deflectors to its centrifugal pumps in 2019, and substantial maintenance, component and capital-cost savings resulted. Deflectors are cylindrical rings placed at either end of the bearing assembly around the shaft. In this application, they fit at the end of oil…

A pump containing three sleeve bearings made from a new bearing material, Hitemp 160 − which can operate to temperatures up to 160°C and is resistant to abrasive material − has been tested in a pump that has received South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) certification.

Independent tests by a major pump manufacturer prove corrosion-free Vesconite Hilube wear rings safely allow reduced running clearances and improve pump efficiency.

Unbeatable bearings

APE Pumps, a pump supplier to many countries, including Zambia, Iraq and South Africa, replaced every pump bushing that it was able to with Vesconite. The company had tried many different types of bushings but was impressed with Vesconite’s toughness, long-life and self-lubricating qualities.

Vesconite Hitemp 150 for condensates

When a large energy company in Africa required lineshaft and bowl bearings for condensate pumps at its 4,000 MW power station, it turned to Hitemp 150, an engineered polymer produced by Vesconite Bearings, that can survive temperatures up to 150°C (300°F). The condensate pumps in question reach temperatures of 110°C (230°F), so the contractor to the power producer is satisfied that the pumps will last and that the bearings will not melt, as would be the case with many other polymers.

One of South Africa’s largest independent polyurethane and plastic foam manufacturers restarted an important gear pump, used to pump glue to rebound foam chips, without difficulty after the company’s December-January closed period. Not only that, the Vesconite Hilube pump bushings, which were inspected at the time of the restart, showed no wear.

A large pump original equipment manufacturer compared energy usage on a typical submersible pump when a Vesconite Hilube wear ring was in place and when a bronze wear ring had been installed. The results independently proved Vesconite Hilube’s ability to improve pumping efficiency and decrease electricity usage.

When the team responsible for the maintenance of the irrigation system at one of South Africa’s premier golf courses was confronted with high levels of debris and pumps running dry for periods, it shifted to a high temperature resistant, high wear resistant polymer, Hitemp 150, for replacement pump bowl bushings. The bushings lasted a year without a scratch.

A thermal power station required a low-wearing, low maintenance bearing alternative for a condensate pump assembly.

A Turkish OEM that supplied a Nile River project with one of its pumps that had been fitted with Vesconite Hilube polymer components in late 2018 reports that the line shaft bushings continue to operate well. The project is associated with abrasive water with a large proportion of sand particulates for which hard-wearing Vesconite Hilube is ideal.

A Southern African pump manufacturer has received its order for Vesconite low-swell hard-wearing water-flingers for four of its pump sizes.

The Australian distributor of Vesconite and Vesconite Hilube continues to supply the company that first proved Vesconite’s suitability for pump applications over 30 years ago. Some 40 to 80 sets of bearings end up in various pumps that this Australian branch of a global pump company uses in repairs or for unique applications, including models of different sizes employed in a variety of conditions.

From agriculture to water utilities, California’s total ban on lead has affected numerous industries. With a rising number of highly public water crises occurring, an increase in similar legislation is expected throughout the country. In preparation, many pump manufacturers that typically use bronze bearings are switching to Vesconite Hilube. Not…

Vanes made of the bearing material Hitemp 150 have lasted three times as long as traditional vanes in servicing company Septic Tanks (Pty) Ltd’s vacuum rotary pump, a Broom B35. Vesconite Bearings technical sales consultant Phillip de Villiers recommended Hitemp 150, an engineered bearing material that is wear resistant and…

Vesconite Hilube pump applications

Vesconite Hilube has been used for decades in a wide range of specialized pump bearing applications. The material thrives in water, keeping to machined sizes without swelling and with zero delamination. Other advantages are that it does not corrode, and helps prevent the corrosion between metal components especially in salt…

15 years ago, a South African vegetable farming enterprise fitted two borehole pumps with custom-designed Vesconite spiders. Vesconite has become internationally recognised as a versatile, high-performance replacement for traditional bushing and bearing materials and has often been used as a line shaft bushing that supports borehole pump shafts. However, in…

VESCONITE IN PUMPS

“We love your product. We have used the Vesconite Hilube in many applications. We have changed our procedures for our vendors who overhaul our vertical turbine pumps and rehab our wells to use only Hilube for all bearing replacements.”

Vesconite Pumps Resources