Abstract: A seal cartridge assembly for installing the elements of a mechanical sealing arrangement in a rotodynamic pump provides, as part of the seal cartridge, a shaft sleeve that supports certain of the non-rotating elements of the sealing arrangement, and facilitates placement of the sealing elements by providing shearable pin elements.

Abstract: A wear plate for use in a centrifugal pump is structured with at least one cutting element positioned at the inner bore of the wear plate, the cutting element or elements being positioned to impact the cutting edge of the vanes of an impeller and oriented in a direction relative to the rotation of the impeller so that the wear plate cutting element or elements can capture the solids in a processed fluid and hold them in place until the solids can be cut by the impeller vane or vanes, the wear plate cutting elements further being structured to be self-sharpening.

Abstract: In one aspect, there is provided a wear plate for use in combination with a centrifugal pump and impeller. The wear plate has a wear surface defined by a substantially flat surface, a truncated conic section, and/or a curvilinear solid of revolution formed by revolving an area bounded by a curve around a center axis of the wear plate, wherein a notch or recess is provided. The notch or recess extends in a first direction perpendicular to a predetermined direction of rotation of an impeller and a second direction crossing against a direction of rotation of the impeller.