Brackish water at the Brandon Shores Power Plant on the Patapsco River in Maryland (owned and operated by Constellation Power Source) was eroding the cast-iron casings of the plant's massive cooling pumps, each of which weighs more than 40 tons and circulates 126,000 gallons of water per minute.
The pumps' impeller blades were also suffering wear, corrosion, and pitting. Shutting down such a pump and performing maintenance is a major, time-consuming job, and replacement parts are expensive. To maximize equipment life and minimize maintenance, Jeff Jensen, the plant's engineering technician, settled on two abrasion-resistant coatings from Devcon after finding how well they had held up inside one pump after four years of use.
Sprayable Ceramic, a two-coat, epoxy compound that produces a smooth, long-lasting protective finish, was used on the pump casing and on a stainless steel impeller. This prevents the formation of a galvanic corrosion cell between the cast iron and the stainless steel. In addition, the casing's eroded wear ring channels were rebuilt with Devcon Titanium Putty, a titanium-reinforced epoxy compound with high compressive strength and excellent temperature resistance.
For more information, contact David Bongiorni, Market Development Manager, Devcon, 30 Endicott St., Danvers, MA 01923, 1-800-343-7026, www.devcon.com.
