Increasing the operational reliability of a ship by using a composite impeller in the event of hydrophore pump failure

The time-consuming technological process of manufacturing impellers and the high production costs are the reason for the search for alternative materials and manufacturing methods. In this paper, based on a literature analysis, the performance of a pump with an impeller that was manufactured by an incremental method from polyethylene terephthalate with an admixture of glycol and carbon fibre (PETG CF) was selected and studied. Operation tests were conducted on the ship’s rotodynamic pump test bench. The composite impeller pump was shown to have an efficiency at the selected printing parameters of 26,23%, comparable to a tin bronze impeller, which has an efficiency of 27,7%. The maximum pump useful power with the impellers tested was 337 W at a flow rate of 4.42 m³/h. The results confirm that, with a filament layer height of 0.12 mm and 100% fill in the four print contours, the pump characteristics obtained are consistent with those of the reference impeller. This fact ensures continuous operation of the ship’s pump for 48 hours which makes the chosen manufacturing method a reliable emergency method of impeller repair in offshore operations.