Principles and Operation of Centrifugal Pumps

Most pump problems are system problems. A pump selected for a duty it never sees runs off its curve, and the symptoms arrive as cavitation, seal failure, high vibration or a bearing life measured in months. Throttling a discharge valve to control flow, running two pumps in parallel without checking the curve, and a suction arrangement that never had the NPSH available are the usual causes, and none of them is fixed by replacing the pump. This week works from the curve outward: what the pump will do, what the system is asking of it, and what the gap does.

It runs 7 times over the published calendar, in 6 cities and live online. Every date is the same programme with the same content and the same certificate.

• Read a pump curve and locate the actual operating point on it.
• Calculate NPSH available and compare it against required, with margin.
• Diagnose cavitation, recirculation and dry running from their symptoms.
• Assess a control method against throttling, recirculation and speed change.
• Trace a repeat seal or bearing failure to the operating point that causes it.

Operators and operations engineers responsible for pumped systems, maintenance and rotating equipment technicians and engineers, and reliability staff investigating repeat failures.

Short input, then work. Across 5 days of roughly 6 teaching hours each, the balance sits deliberately with the second: a programme where the trainer talks for six hours produces notes rather than capability.

• Your own material

  Exercises run on situations delegates bring, not on a case study written for a different organisation in a different decade.

• A capped cohort

  Small enough that everybody is asked something. Executive programmes are capped tighter still.

• Practice under scrutiny

  The difficult conversation, the challenged assumption, the decision defended out loud. Judgement is not built by watching.

• Something to take back

  Each day ends with a thing you can use on Monday rather than a slide deck you will not reopen.

• A system curve for one of the delegate's own pumped systems, with the duty point marked.
• An NPSH assessment with the available margin calculated.
• A failure analysis linking one repeat failure to its operating cause.

A GATI certificate recording what you attended, issued after the programme has run and attendance has been taken. Attending at least 80 per cent of the days earns a certificate of completion; attending less earns a certificate of attendance stating exactly what was attended.

Every certificate carries a code that anybody can check against GATI's own record, which is what makes it worth holding. It records participation. This site will not imply one it does not have.