Abstract: A thermal barrier which is interposed between the casing of a pump and the housing of a motor has a first section which resembles a spool and includes a first flange sealingly connected to the casing, a second flange sealingly connected to the housing and a hollow cylindrical core spacedly surrounding the pump shaft between the two flanges. The first section serves primarily or exclusively to establish a seal between the pump casing and the motor housing, and the thermal barrier has a second section which takes up stresses and further serves as a heat insulating and/or heat dissipating device. The second section is removably installed in the space between the two flanges of the first section and spacedly surrounds the core. The second section may be constituted by hollow cylindrical walls, one or more stacks of washers or rings, one or more annuli of parallel tubes, bars, rods, ribs or a combination of such elements.

Abstract: A centrifugal pump has a casing with a cylindrical shell surrounding a volute-type inner section which is formed with a hollow radial extension for admission of fluid into a nipple of the shell. The extension forms part of or constitutes a separable sealing device between a passage of the inner section and a passage of the shell. The inner section is suspended in the shell by one or more pipes which are coaxial with the rotor and/or by one or more projections which extend radially from the inner section and abut against the internal surface of the shell or extend into recesses provided therefor in the internal surface of the shell.

Abstract: The casing of a centrifugal pump has a shell with a cylindrical periphery having one or more recessed facets with flat or spherical surfaces which are welded to end portions of pipes by circumferentially complete machine-made seams each of which is intersected, in its entirety, by at least one imaginary plane that is normal to the axis of the respective pipe. This renders it possible to use automatic welding equipment and to readily inspect the quality of the connection between the shell and a pipe. The surface of the facet can be formed with a circumferentially complete groove to receive a transducer serving to generate signals denoting the intensity of penetrative radiation which has penetrated through the seam from a source of such radiation in the interior of the respective pipe and in register with the respective seam. The shell is suspended on the arms of a foundation and such arms extend into additional facets which are recessed into the periphery of the shell.

Abstract: An outer tubular member is adapted to be connected at one end with the wall of a pressure vessel, such as a reactor, and an inner tubular member is rigidly connected with and extends coaxially through the outer tubular member. A portion of the inner tubular member extends beyond the outer tubular member into the interior of the pressure vessel, and a pump shaft extends through the inner tubular member. A radial bearing for the pump shaft is located in the aforementioned portion of the inner tubular member and a pump wheel is connected with the pump shaft within the pressure vessel. A pump shaft seal is located in the inner tubular member within the confines of the outer tubular member, and arrangements are provided for sealingly connecting the inner and outer tubular members with one another, and for carrying exteriorly of the pressure vessel an additional bearing.