Tag Archives: decontamination

Contaminant-Free Environment for Critical Services

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Pump Solutions for Clean Applications

Many critical pump applications require sanitization and assembly in a clean environment to prevent contaminants that could put the service at risk of combustion or affect the purity of the end product. To better meet our customers’ clean service needs, Hydro has installed a state-of-the-art clean room at our HydroTex Deer Park facility.

Hydro’s Deer Park clean room allows decontamination of refurbished pumps in a controlled environment. Cleaned components are inspected to ensure the absence of contaminants using a black light and are individually packaged after inspection. Upon decontamination of all components, the full pump is assembled in the clean room environment using stringent control procedures to ensure cleanliness of the equipment is maintained. The assembled pump is packaged in a sealed environment in preparation of delivery to the end user.

Since its inception in 2021, Deer Park’s clean room has become the facility of choice for various oxygen, nitrogen, and chlorine pump end users in the Houston and greater Gulf Coast regions. We are proud to add this new service to our pump subject matter expertise and industry-leading refurbishment standards.  With this winning combination, Hydro continues support our customers in ensuring safe and reliable pump operation while reducing their total cost of equipment ownership.

Capability in Action

An industrial gas customer providing medical-grade oxygen had been sending their O2 pumps for refurbishment to the overseas OEM, who does not have a US facility. HydroTex Deer Park repaired and decontaminated their O2 pumps in their dedicated clean room.

Being able to find a reliable, qualified supplier that was local to their facility saved the end user valuable time and ensured availability of this critical, lifesaving application.

Visit our HydroTex facility in La Porte.

Refurbishing a Contaminated Nuclear Casing

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Creative approaches that extend beyond original designs, standard tools, and traditional engineering practices can provide significant savings and higher reliability of pumping equipment. For example, in one such situation, the casing of a charging pump at a European nuclear plant had been over-pressurized and needed to be refurbished. Not only was the pump service radioactive, but the casing was also found twisted with its internal components unable to properly fit into the casing, and the machined surfaces out of alignment.

The original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of the pump stated that they could not repair the casing and that the only option was to purchase a new one. The nuclear plant’s engineers approached Hydro, Inc., a global aftermarket pump service provider, for assistance in finding a spare casing.  When no spare was found, Hydro initiated a more detailed discussion with the plant about refurbishing the casing.

Hydro’s team inspected the pump, the casing, and the internal element and explored all possible options (Figure 1). Hydro was able to find an inventive solution by machining the casing in the contaminated state and developing creative methods to guarantee a proper fit-up when the casing repair was completed. Despite the OEM suggesting a new pump be purchased, the service provider was able to find an innovative and cost-saving way for the plant to repair the casing and reduce downtime. Continue reading →