Good Morning,
We are operating a Lab Society Cannabeast WFD Unit in OH and recently had our residue gear pump shit the bed. It is a Witte Chem1,28-22-6. Does anyone have access to another one of these pumps or a rebuild kit? Going through Maag is looking like it will take 8+ weeks.
Any recommendations on how to keep this system running without a gear pump for 8 weeks would be greatly appreciated also.
Incon process systems told me theyd provide support for cannabeasts when I was considering buying one. Id consider asking them if they have a spare, can fix, or suggest alternative. They are based in illinois
Lab society partnered with incon to build the cannabeast
I think larger spools/keg or collection pot like these could be used on the residue side as an alternative to glass. But the answer is probably dependent on your daily/hourly throughput etc.
What kind of fitting does the residue oil come out of? KF? Triclamp? Glass joint? Tried looking the system up and there are barely any pictures available, just renderings.
In general you may be able to keep running without the residue pump if you keep your residue side hot and can discharge the residue oil into a two-necked flask with the appropriate fittings. You’ll have to shut down the vacuum on your system to drain your receiving flask, and put a vent valve on the other neck of your receiving flask (likely). If you can send pics I can offer more specific recommendations.
Would need to connect a receiving flask onto this arm here. Was thinking about some sort of double ended stopper for a flask or something that could be sandwiched between this and a beaker potentially?
what’s at the other end of that heated discharge/pump inlet. same fitting?
kludge you’re looking for is more likely to be found closer to the wiper body.
Problem is it’s gotta be a good seal or your vacuum will suffer.
This almost looks like a Rotulex connection. VTA uses them to connect glass spherical joint fittings to gear pumps
Root sciences may be able to help out. I’ve gone from a similar connection to ground glass joint before and used a 4L two-necked flask. I would take cyclopaths suggestion and look upstream of this. Hopefully there is an easier fitting to work with up there.
second picture upstream of the gear pump…
This adapter might work to get you to a compression fitting. World’s your oyster after that.
^^^ some replacement parts for the Chem1 28-22-13 (check compatibility w/ 28-22-6)
Going through MAAG is probably your best bet unfortunately.
Or you could reach out to another company, like Oberdorfer (Chemsteel) or Liquiflo, for an equivalent pump that may be easier to service in the future.
Still curious if anyone has reached out about this
In general if you are running your residue very hot (like a lot of us do) you may get some carbonization which wrecks gear pump heads. If this is the case for you, you will have to come up with a PM schedule for this pump
sounds like you oughta buy two pumps so you have one on standby at all time.
Best time to start a spare parts program is yesterday, second best time is today. You’d be surprised how many otherwise-sophisticated full-GMP pharmaceutical companies I’ve come across who are similarly playing catch-up with their reliability engineering programs, so at least take some comfort in knowing even the big guys get caught with their pants down (or more likely, focused on getting production running smoothly and put spare parts/maintenance on the backburner)…only difference is, they’ve usually got the ability to hire multiple employees to solely focus on running their equipment management programs.
Sound advice
Or at least have a rebuild kit on hand
I’d say best thing to do is get that old one off and confirm the connection style for both the pump inlet and the oil lines that keep it hot, then figure out how to adapt to one of the chinese gear pumps as they will be readily available and relatively cheap while you get your old one fixed
When you say “shit the bed” mind sharing exactly what’s wrong with it?
I also vote going the China route or another alternative.
Really no reason to stick with the Witte pump IMO.
I have some options here for sale
