Wear Analysis of Scraper Fragment on Syrup Pumps Used in Sugar Industry

The aim of this paper was to study the wear of the scraper fragment experimentally, which is the most important element for syrup pump in transporting the viscous massecuite. A test pump was designed and manufactured in Eskişehir Sugar Machine Plant (Turkey) for sugar industry. The prediction of wear has been studied over scraper fragments with different hardness values by determining the wear parameters such as weight loss and wear rate in various operating periods under the same environmental conditions. A total of 275 specimens within three groups over five different hardnesses of materials were tested where each of these groups consisted of 11 specimens. The experiments were conducted with 55, 110 and 110 different types of specimens in each group. The first group was composed of 195 HB unhardened; the second group consisted of 245 HB and 481 HB induction hardened; and the last group consisted of 286 HB and 510 HB water-quenched specimens. This study showed that scraper is the most effective element in increasing the hydraulic efficiency by preventing the backflush on elliptic rotor with respect to the experiments. Therefore, based on the experimental results, an optimal wear-resistant scraper material is recommended for decreasing the breakdown and replacement time. The analysis of variance was employed to select the optimum material and to predict the wear parameters by mathematical relations.