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I recently met a 3rd officer.

I had a conversation with

him about less number of jobs these days for junior

officers.

He told me how he got the job just after clearing his

exams while his friends were still waiting.

You might ask what edge he had over his friends !!!

Well, he had worked on ships (tankers) with Framo

pumps.

I was like.. what ?? Now Framo system helping to get

the jobs on ships.

Few seconds later when I got my breath back, I realised

how Framo has captured the tanker market.

Truth be told, Submersible pumps are the present and

future of the tanker industry.


This makes the knowledge of Submersible pumps and

Framo system so much important. This post is about the

basics of the Framo pump so let’s start with that.

How a centrifugal pump works ?

Framo submersible pumps are centrifugal pumps. So

before we discuss Framo pumps, we must know how a

centrifugal pump works ?

And this video might help in understanding of how a

centrifugal pump works.


I am not going in details of how a centrifugal pump

works. But if you watch the above video, you would

know that it has three main components

 Impeller

 Volute casing surrounding impeller, and

 A prime mover (source of energy) to move the impeller

Prime mover provides the energy for the impeller to

rotate. Impeller rotates and pushes the liquid into the

volute casing.

Volute casing has a spiral structure. It has narrow

opening at the entry of liquid and the size of opening

increases along the passage of liquid.


This means that as the liquid travels in the volute

casing, velocity reduces and pressure increases. This is

as per Bernoilli’s Theorum.

This is the most basic points we should know before we

proceed with any kind of centrifugal pump.

Components of FRAMO system


As with all centrifugal pumps, Framo pump also have

 Impeller

 Volute casing

But apart from being a centrifugal pump, FRAMO is also

a submersible pump. That is the pump is fitted inside

the cargo tank and will be submerged in the liquid

(cargo).

Keeping this in mind, let us discuss the components of

FRAMO system to better understand this.

1. Hydraulic Motor

For the centrifugal pump to work, impeller need to

rotate. But impeller would not rotate on its own. It need

a source of energy (prime mover).

In steam turbine centrifugal pumps, this energy is

provided by steam. For electric pumps, electric

motor provides this energy for rotating the impeller.


In FRAMO system, this energy is provided by

the Hydraulic motor using the pressurised hydraulic oil.

How ? Well we all have read the below law of

conservation of energy. Haven’t we ?

“Energy can neither be created not destroyed. It can

only be converted from one form to another”

Hydraulic motor converts pressure energy of high

hydraulic oil pressure to rotational energy to rotate the

impeller.

Below diagram is the most basic diagram that shows

how a hydraulic motor works.

High pressure oil enters the motor. It rotates the shaft

and low pressure oil leaves the motor.


In Framo system, you will not be able to see the

hydraulic motor as it is placed in the outer casing.

And there are no serviceable parts in a Framo hydraulic

motor.

2. Power Packs

For the Hydraulic motor to rotate the impeller, there

need to be high pressure of hydraulic oil.


Power packs supply this high pressure hydraulic oil to

the Framo hydraulic motor.

Power packs are either installed in the forecastle store

or in the engine room of the ship.

Power pack system consists of

 A hydraulic oil tank to draw the oil from

 High pressure pump to take suction from the Hydraulic

tanks and pump this oil into the hydraulic pipeline on

deck

 Electric motor to run the High pressure pump


It is important that hydraulic oil tank always have

sufficient oil for the high pressure pump. If it has less or

no oil, the pump will get damaged.

Less or no oil can be because of two reasons.

 No oil in the tank

 Closed Suction valve to the power pack


There are two safe gaurds in the Framo system to

ensure this.

 “Closed suction line” trip

 “Low oil level” trip

Closed suction valve trip

If the suction valve for the high pressure pump is

closed, the power pack will trip. This ensures that the

suction valve of the pump to take suction from hydraulic

tank is not inadvertantly closed.

The alarm for the trip will display in cargo control room

as well as Engine control room.


There is a sensor arrangement for the suction valve,

which senses if the suction valve is fully open.

In old Framo system this could be a manual valve with

its handle touching the sensor. If the suction valve is

even slightly closed, its looses the touch of sensor and

trip is activated.
In new systems, the valve is not a manual valves. In

this case the a proximity sensor is fitted on top of the

valve, that senses if the valve is fully open or not.

Low oil level trip

The power pack can loose suction if there isn’t sufficient

oil in the hydraulic tank. For this reason when the oil

level in the hydraulic tank goes below minimum level,

the power pack will trip.

The oil level in the hydraulic tank is kept just above the

alarm level. This ensures that any leakage in the line

will be immediately detected without the loss of much of

hydrualic oil.

There are two alarms for low level

 Low Level alarms, and

 Low Low level Alarm


When the level is at Low level, an alarm will activate

and will be displayed in CCR and ECR.

If the level of the oil further drops to “Low Low”, the

hydraulic oil system (Power pack) will trip.

If the low oil level trip is activated, the reason for low

level must be investigated. The oil can then be refilled

either from the standby tank or spare drums whichever

available.
It is important to fill only the correct grade of hydraulic

oil.

3. Cofferdam and Purging routine

So far we have discussed that

 Framo pump is run by hydraulic motor and

 Hydraulic motor gets the pressurised hydraulic oil from

the power packs

Now let us see the internal parts of the framo pump.


If you notice,

 the red section is the high pressure hydraulic oil going

into the hydraulic motor.

 Yellow part is the hydraulic oil return.

Both these pipes are concentric to each other. Like in

below picture.

This pump is inside the cargo tank and there are two

liquids (hydraulic oil and cargo) that should not come in

contact.
If the hydraulic oil leak into the cargo, cargo can

damage. If cargo goes into the hydraulic oil, the

hydraulic system will damage.

As you might have guessed, there is something in the

Framo pump to prevent that. There is hydraulic seal

that prevents hydraulic oil leakage to the cargo side.

And there is cargo seal that prevents cargo leaking into

the hydraulic side.

But seals can leak overtime, right ? so if any of these

seals are leaking, how would we know ?

That is exactly the purpose of cofferdam.

You can think of cofferdam as a steel cup with cargo

seal at the bottom. Any hydraulic oil or cargo leakage

will collect in this cofferdam.


It is important to know if the cofferdam is empty or not.

And this is done by purging the cofferdam.

We introduce air or nitrogen in the cofferdam and check

the outlet of the purging line.


 If we just get the air in outlet of purging line, the

cofferdam is empty. So no leakage of hydraulic oil or

cargo and both the seals are intact.

 If we get cargo in the cofferdam, it indicates that the

cargo seal of the Framo pump is leaking

 If we get Hydraulic oil in the cofferdam, it indicates that

Hydraulic oil seal of the framo pump is leaking

 If we get mixture of Hydraulic oil and cargo, it indicates

that both oil seal and cargo seal are leaking

If any of the seal is leaking, it need to be replaced with

new seal after the discharging and tank cleaning of the

tank.

Framo has a purging routine which shows when the

purging of the pump cofferdam need to be carried out.


[Click here for larger view]

We must keep history of purging records for all

previous voyages.

For some cargoes, we are supposed to not do the

cofferdam purging. These may be toxic cargoes such

Toluene Diisocynate or solidifying cargoes such as Palm

oil.
In these cases we need to fill the cofferdam with some

liquid (DOP in case of loading TDI) so that cofferdam is

not blocked with the cargo.

4. STC Valve (Before known as “Flow


control valve)
Now we have the pump and the hydraulic system to run

the pump.

But like any other type of cargo pump, Framo too would

have an operational requirement.

To be able to run the pump at different speeds

To achieve this, we should be able to control the flow of

the hydraulic oil to the hydraulic motor of the Framo

pump. This is because more the flow of pressurised oil

to the hydraulic motor, more speed the impeller will

rotate.

This is exactly what Speed torque controller does. STC

is fitted on top plate of the pump on main deck. The

Hydraulic oil inlet pass through the STC.


STC of the pump controls the speed of the pump by

allowing only the required amount of hydraulic oil to

pass through to the hydraulic motor.

STC also prevent the pump to overspeed by controlling

the amount of oil to the hydraulic motor of the pump.

There are two ways to control the speed of the pump

through STC.

 From the local control on the STC


 From the cargo control room

Local control valve on STC

With local control valve, we can control the speed of the

pump locally from the pump itself. This becomes handy

during stripping of the tanks or tank cleaning.

Local control valve is a kind of knob located on the STC.

When we close the knob (by turning clockwise), the STC

passes the oil to the pump.


When we open the knob (by turning anti clockwise), the

STC bypasses all the oil and nothing goes into the

hydraulic motor. Pump stops or do not run in this case.

By partially closing the local control valve, we can adjust

the speed of the pump.

Starting the pump from the cargo control room

Speed of the pump (or we can say operation of

STC) can also be controlled from cargo control room.

We do this by a lever provided in the cargo control

room. Each pump has a lever that connects with the

STC of that pump by a hydraulic control line.


As we push the lever up to start the pump, a signal in

form of hydraulic control line pressure goes to the STC.

STC then releases the amount of oil to the hydraulic

motor which will be corresponding to the amount to

lever lifted.

Here is the actual photo of the STC and pump stack on

deck.
Remote start and Local start

Both, the remote start from CCR and local start from

the pump location are interconnected.

We cannot start the pump from local control if the pump

Lever is not pushed up from the CCR.

Same goes other way around.


If the local control knob is in open position, the pump

will not work even when the pump lever is operated

from CCR.

So for the pump to operate, STC need to have the signal

from both from local control valve as well as remote

lever in CCR.

If we need to start the pump from local control

 We open the local control valve by rotating it anti

clockwise

 We push the lever up from the CCR

 We operate the pump locally by slowly closing the local

control valve

If we have to start the pump from CCR

 We close the local control valve by rotating it clock wise

 From CCR , we push the lever up to start the pump


5. Feed Pumps

For the Framo system to work efficiently, the hydraulic

oil used in the system need to be in absolute good

condition.

There are few things that can degrade the hydraulic oil

quality.

 Moisture ingress due to hydraulic lines being in vacuum

due to temperature variation

 Air in the system that can cause vibrations, frothing of

the oil etc.

 Small particles that can be inside the oil during filling of

hydraulic oil tank or after a maintenance on the system

Feed pump takes care of all of these issues. Here is

how.

Feed pump always keep on running, 365 days in a year,

24 hours a day. Feed pump maintains positive pressure


in the lines and hydraulic system . It continuously

recirculate the oil through entire hydraulic oil system

Usually pressure of more than 5 Bars is maintained in

the system even when the system is not in use.

Now when the system is always under positive pressure,

the chances of moisture ingress are minimum

Air if any is auto released to the Hydraulic tank while

recirculation. Off course if air is still suspected in the

system, there is air purging arrangements in the Framo.

And any particles in the system are filtered while feed

pump runs the hydraulic oil in recirculation mode. This

is because the recirculated oil is made to pass through

the filter.

Recirculation of hydraulic oil through feed pump also

avoids oil temperature variations at different parts of

the hydraulic system.

There is another function that feed pump serves.


It helps in keeping the feed pressure on the suction side

of the main hydraulic pump. This means that when high

pressure power pack pumps are taking suction from the

hydraulic tank, feed pump ensures that there is no

negative pressure on the suction side.

Feed pump alarms

One of the feed pumps must always be running when

the power packs are not in operation. If the feed pump

stops, the “protection pressure Low” alarms will be

initiated.
When starting the first main power pack, two feed

pumps will automatically start before the power pack is

started. This is called high capacity mode of feed

system. This is to keep the feed pressure on the suction

side of the main hydraulic pump.

Now let us say that one of the feed pump stops

while running in high capacity mode and the power

packs are running. In this case the third feed pump will

start automatically.
If running signal for the third feed pump is not obtained

within 3 seconds, the “feed pressure low” alarm will

be initiated and power packs will shut down.

6. Cooling and heating system

Hydraulic oil used in any hydraulic system has a

optimum temperature range for use. This is because

higher temperature can damage the seals and other


components and also it accelerates the degradation of

oil.

Hydraulic oil used in Framo system is no exception.

Depending upon the surrounding temperature, the

hydraulic oil used in Framo may be below or above this

temperature range.

If it is above the optimum range, the oil will need

cooling. If it is below the optimum range, it would need

heating.
Even if the surrounding tempertaure is within optimum

range, the oil temperature will increase during

operation.

If the surrounding temperature is below 20 C, we need

to open the heating and venting valve for heating with

one power pack running. When the oil temperature is

well within operating range, other power packs can be

started.
Same goes for when the surrounding temperature is

higher. The hydraulic oil is made to pass through a oil

cooler to cool the oil before delivery on deck.

The cooling water inlet valve is automatically controlled.

It will open at hydraulic oil temperature above 50 C and

will close when temperature decreases to below 30 C.

The “high oil temperature alarm will activate if the oil

temperature is above 60 C.
When oil temperature reaches 70 C, the power packs

will trip.

7. Emergency Stops

One final thing (among many other) that the operator of

the Framo pumps need to know is about “Emergency

stops” for the pumps.

These are the push buttons installed at different

locations. When pressed, the hydraulic system will trip

immidiately.
The common locations for these emergency stops are

 Cargo control room

 Manifold port side

 Manifold starboard side

 At the power pack location


On each ship, there could be few locations for

emergency stop for Hydraulic system. We must know all

of these locations.

Conclusion

Submersible pumps on board tankers is the first choice

for the ship owners because of various advantages

these offer.

This is particularly the case with chemical and product

MR and LR tankers.

Framo is leader among the submersible pumps fitted on

board tankers. For anyone working on tankers, this

makes the thorough knowledge of the Framo system a

necessity.

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