At Triplex Sales, one of the challenges we most often see our partners face is how to best clean their SPXFlow/Waukesha Cherry Burrell Universal pump. Almost every day a client will come to us with an issue cleaning their pump. In part 2 of this series will be focusing on the Universal 3 and Universal Twin Screw Pumps and the best practices for cleaning those pumps. For questions about how to clean your Universal 1 or Universal 2 Pumps, view part 1 here.
Waukesha Cherry Burrell Universal 3 ECP Pump
The Waukesha Universal 3 pump is the latest and greatest addition to a rich legacy of world class positive displacement pumps. The Waukesha Universal 3 pump, in many ways, picks up where the Universal 1 and 2 left off. The 2018 Plant Engineering Magazine Product of the Year, the Universal 3 offers a front-loaded seal design with no bearings in the product zone. If you’ve ever had to crawl under a hopper full of ground beef to replace the seal on a U2 220, you realize the incredible benefits of having a front loading seal.
We will focus more on the U3 seal options in a future post, but this post is about cleaning. So how do you clean a Waukesha Universal 3 Pump? The Universal 3 Pump is designed specifically to provide complete access for CIP solution to all product contact surfaces and the flat body profile that allows for complete draining of a side mounted Universal 3 Pump. Additionally, flats on the rotor hubs provide CIP solution access to the cover hub/shaft seal and a custom cover seal is used to improve cleanability and resist particulates from being “pinched” and trapped.
As we mentioned when discussing the Universal 1 and Universal 2, this area between the cover and rotor hubs is often the most difficult area to clean in a rotary lobe pump. But because of the Universal 3’s front loading seal design, we literally turn the rotors “inside out”. The rotary seal is installed into the rotor so the rotors of a U3 are “mirrored’ compared to a U1 and U2 which eliminates the recesses in the cover needed to accommodate the rotor hub. Instead, the cover actually extends over the shafts of the pumps, eliminating considerable dead space where product can accumulate. This feature is a huge, understated advantage of the Universal 3, greatly simplifying Clean in Place procedures.
Universal 3 Cleaning Recommendation: Clean in Place (CIP)
Waukesha Cherry Burrell Universal Twin Screw Pump
The Universal Twin Screw Pump or UTS is the only member of the Waukesha pump family that is not an external circumferential piston (ECP) pump. Instead, the UTS uses two “meshed” screws to form multiple sets of sealed cavities which give the pump positive pressure capability to move product from the pump inlet to the outlet.
Because of the axial motion of the screws, we are able to run Twin Screw Pumps at much higher speeds than traditional ECP pumps- up to 3500 RPM in the case of the UTS. Doing so often eliminates the need for CIP supply pumps or pump bypass that we commonly see in traditional rotary lobe applications. The UTS also includes a free draining cover and special cover gasket that excludes small particulates, such as seeds, that are often handled by Twin screw pumps. The clearances between the screws and the pump body are also “looser” than we see in most rotary lobe applications. In short, the UTS is sanitation’s dream, CIP-ing easily without the need for complex bypass loops or booster pumps.
Universal Twin Screw Cleaning Recommendation: Clean in Place (CIP)
As we wrap up our 2 part series on how you should clean your positive displacement pump, hopefully it is clear to you how to best clean your Waukesha Cherry Burrell Universal 1, Universal 2, Universal 3, or Universal Twin Screw positive displacement pump. If you have any questions on best practices for cleaning your positive displacement pump, please contact a Triplex Sales Engineer today!
