What Are The Two Types Of Gear Pumps & Their Uses?

by Avadhesh Sharma SEO Analyst

Gear pumps have become quite popular in various industries today. It uses the method of displacement and meshing of gears to pump the fluid into different sources. They are a common type of pumps that use the hydraulic power, or the power of water, to perform different kinds of work. It was invented in the 16th century by Johannes Kepler and have been seeing a number of applications even after so many centuries. Gear pumps are a type of positive displacement pumps and are great when used for transferring liquids that have a high viscosity. These fluids could be plastics, paints, automotive oils, soaps, adhesive, and many others that might be having a pulseless flow. There are a number of gear pump manufacturers in India that are offering them for the perfect application. Suction is created at the inlet of the pump where there is a rotating assembly with two gears. These are the drive gear and the idler. They can be in either of the two forms. One can also find gear pumps exporters in the global market that could be used for a number of hydraulic power applications.

Gear pumps can be broadly categorized into two types- external gear pumps and internal gear pumps. In this write-up, you will get to know more about both these gear pumps and their different features.

External Gear Pumps

Two separate shafts are used in these types of gear pumps that support the two identical and interlocking gears. The one gear, that is the drive gear, is started by the motor and as it gets into the action, the idler, or second gear, also gets into action. However, in some of the gear pumps, there are chances that both of the shafts in the gear (the drive gear and the idler) are powered by a motor. In this type of gear pump, the fluid is always pumped out of the pump. Some of the features of an external gear pump are:

• They can offer a high pressure pumping as well at a low or medium temperature

• They have a pretty high capacity owing to their large outlet sizes

• The design of the external gear pumps is generally compact and do not require a lot of space

• Both sides of the gears might have shaft support along with close tolerances

• There are no overhung bearing loads in external gear pumps

Internal Gear Pumps

The gear pumps supplier in Gujarat also specializes in offering internal gear pumps at a competitive price. The main factor that differentiates the internal gear pumps from the external ones is clearly visible in its name as well. These gear pumps are known to be drawing fluid into the pump instead of pushing it outside it. Some of the features of internal gear pumps are:

• Can also work dry but only for short periods

• The footprint of these gear pumps could be large and bulky

• They can offer low capacity pumping at a high temperature

• There may be one or two bearings for supporting the rotors

• There is a requirement of a low net pressure suction head only