During the last decade, the Afrikantov experimental engineering designs office (Nizhnii Novgorod), which formerly specialized on nuclear plant for icebreakers and for vessels in the northern fleet, including equipment for them, such as sealed centrifugal electric pumps (CEP), has done much research on adapting the components for the needs of oil refining, and of organizations concerned with transporting oil products. In 1993-1995, the organization developed a parametric series of sealed pumps (Table 1). These developments preserved the traditional specifications from the nuclear industry, so they had exceptionally high reliability. Similar pumps have operated successfully for example in the nuclear installations of icebreakers, with a design working life of 100,000h without dismounting and repair. The maximum working period for each of ten pumps as attained on the Arktika nuclear icebreaker was 150,000h, and the operation continues. The total working periods for the prototype designs (five styles, over 1500 units) exceeds 16,000 years, and the number of individual failures (apart from experimental plant) is only 15-20, which has usually been due to deviations from the standard working conditions.
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