SANITARY DESIGN GEAR PUMP

A sanitary design gear pump in which two gear shaft bearing blocks constitute hand removable structural end bodies of the pump. The gear shaft bearing journals extend completely through the blocks for easy cleaning and are sealed by O-rings retained by simple clamp plates. Gear cavity bore extends only the length of the largest gears, among interchangeable gear sizes. Bearing block to gear cavity seals are located at the ends of the gear bore to eliminate entrapment zones, minimal intrusion of the bearing blocks into the gear cavity allowing a large pump operating temperature range. Shaft seals of many different types can be contained in a simple hand removable cartridge. Complete pump disassembly is by one manually operated tee-handled clamp fastener. The drive and driven gear shafts are of different diameters to aid and assure correct assembly. The assembled pump slides into a pump mount with integral tie rods sealing the pump and securing it to the mount. The mount foot is reverse of the body, allowing the pump ports orientation to be selected at 90.degree. intervals by a pin and groove engagement of the pump body and mount. The pump mount allows repeated pump removal without loss of pump-drive alignment. The drive gear shaft is splined to allow free pump removal from its mount and driveto pump disassembly without need to remove a shaft coupling. Pump displacement can be altered, requiring only interchange of gears and the drive end bearing block. The pump design meets the requirements of the 3-A Sanitary Standard 02-09 as promulgated by the 3-A Sanitary Standards Symbol Administrative Council.