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Seaboard
Marine
2947 W. 5th. Street
Oxnard, California
93030-6486 |
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| SEAMAX - Model
SMX 1730 Pump - History |
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| Why the SMX 1730
Pump and how did this all come about?? |
| This all started about
1988 when Cummins released the (infamous to some) 6BTA 300, sometimes
referred to as the CPL 970. About that time Sherwood and Cummins struck
a deal that allowed Sherwood to become the exclusive supplier of seawater
pumps for them. |
| What I call "Design Defects" in the
new Sherwood Pump that was installed on the new generation Cummins 300B
marine engines (1700 series) became apparent soon after its release,
and over the 16-17 years that followed, as Sherwood made different versions
of this same "base pump," the number of design defects grew along with
the new models. Now keep in mind, as we are not talking about seal and
bearing wear/failures here, we are talking about real defects in design
that I have never seen with any other seawater pump I have dealt with.
By the time their most popular version was released, the 1730 (in about
1995), soon thereafter it was obvious that something had to be done to
help solve this seawater pump failure dilemma that was now causing direct
harm to my livelihood because this pump was being installed on the new
Cummins Diamonds that were now the mainstay of my engine sales and repower
part of my business. |
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| Some of the issues that will "hit
home" with the 1000's of users of the Sherwood 17XX design: |
#1 - Woodruff key issues
in the earliest designs that caused pump & engine gear housing
failures
#2 - The straight key/impeller design and the
problems with wear, installation and rear plate failure when the
key moves aft and grinds on it
#3 - Shaft failures due to defective snap-ring
groove design and/or material
#4 - The "Spinning Wear Plate"--only Sherwood
could have come up with this design for such a stupid holding method
for locking the inner wear plate in place.
#5 - The dreaded "Spinning Cam Syndrome"-Caused
100% by a cheesy cam screw and material choice design
#6 - Pre-mature water seal failures-Poor choice
as to design and style of seal. If I said that 90% of every Sherwood
17xx pump develops a leaking water seal before 500 hours, I'd be
lying. I think it is really closer to 98%... Love those warranty
dollars though!! |
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| Catalog
View of a Sherwood 17xx PUMP |
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| #7 - The alloy Sherwood
calls "bronze or brass ". Did someone at Sherwood flunk Metallurgy
101 as their cams and wear plates just seem to "go away" ???.
I always thought that making seawater resistant bronze/brass
alloys was figured out long before we were all born...........
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| Real
Time EXPLODED View of a Sherwood 17XX PUMP |
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As more years past and the flak I was getting about
the quality of the Sherwood pumps grew, by early 2005, it was time to
become proactive in developing a new pump that would "fit" as a 100%
"plug & play" Sherwood 1730 replacement and try to do something that
could make this pump more reliable... Our biggest challenge was working
around the size constraints of the application as this new pump had to
FIT exactly as the 1730 did or we could not market it successfully...
Because of this, we even had to compromise some on both bearing support
and shaft size, which was where this pump needed much improvement. Solving
the material choice was easy as all we had to do was not use the "junk"
metal alloys, but go back to basics-Use proven seawater resistant alloys
that have been used for decades by other prominent manufacturers of seawater
pumps.
After some searching around, I found a respected company in Korea (already
in the seawater pump business) that was willing to work with me in a
new design. I had lots of ideas but absolutely no experience in trying
to manufacture a seawater pump, and being a "small guy," had limited
funding available for the development. What I did have was the knowledge
of what can make a good seawater pump, a marketing plan, and also what
we had to do to make the needed improvements. Well about 18 months of
work with 100's of e-mails and drawings going back and forth, we came
up with what is our SMX 1730 (& SMX 1727) seawater pump and now offer
what we think is a superior "mouse trap". Our improvements speak for
themselves and address all of the issues that are inherent with the Sherwood
pump design. Cost ??-of course the new pump cost more than we hoped for,
but with the cost of copper-based alloys tripling from early 2005 thru
mid 2006, this did not help.. But in the end, we are still price competitive
and now offer the end user a "choice" for the seawater pump used for
the very popular Cummins 6BTA 5.9 and 6CTA 8.3 Diamond (and commercial
counterparts) diesels. ...................................................Tony
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| For more information
regarding "SEAMAX" products please contact: tony@sbmar.com |
| Copyright © 2006
Seaboard Marine |
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