Field Rebuild Advantage

The Challenge

In industrial pump operations, downtime costs money. Every hour a pump is offline represents lost production, missed deadlines, and eroded margins. Yet traditional rotary gear pumps create an impossible choice: keep a backup pump on standby, or accept the risk of extended outages.

When a traditional gear pump loses efficiency or develops wear, the standard service procedure is removal from the pipeline, careful packaging, and shipment to a service center or manufacturer. From there, the pump sits in a queue. If parts need to be ordered, weeks pass. Meanwhile, production stops or operators maintain expensive backup equipment to cover the outage.

In remote locations—mining operations, offshore installations, chemical plants far from major service centers—this model breaks down entirely. Shipping logistics alone can stretch the timeline to months.

The NAPCO Approach

NAPCO rotary gear pumps are engineered from the ground up for field serviceability. This is not an afterthought—it is the core design philosophy.

The pump housing stays in place, mounted in the pipeline. Only the internal wear parts are replaced. NAPCO repair kits (the PK series) contain every component that wears: drive gear, idler gear, bearings, seals, gaskets, and O-rings. Everything needed for a complete rebuild is in one kit.

A qualified technician—using only standard hand tools—can disassemble the pump, clean the chamber, install the kit, and have the pump running again. No specialized alignment equipment. No factory procedures. No downtime beyond the few hours it takes to open, service, and close the pump.

This simplicity comes directly from NAPCO's two-gear design: one drive gear, one idler gear. Fewer parts mean fewer failure modes, faster service, and repair procedures that any competent technician can execute.

Why It Matters

Consider the real-world comparison:

The business impact compounds over time:

• Reduced downtime — Measured in hours instead of days or weeks
• No backup pump inventory — Eliminates the capital cost and storage overhead of standing equipment
• Multiple rebuilds — A NAPCO pump housing lasts for years of service with sequential kit replacements, not retirement
• Field crew autonomy — Technicians can stock repair kits on-site for immediate response, no dispatcher calls required
• Remote-site operation — In locations where logistics are challenging, field rebuild capability is indispensable

The Industry Result

NAPCO pumps have become the industry standard precisely because of this serviceability advantage. In explosives manufacturing, mining operations, and chemical processing—sectors where uptime is critical and locations are remote—the ability to rebuild on-site is not a luxury; it is a competitive necessity.

The simple two-gear design means fewer failure modes, faster service, and repair procedures that field crews can master without factory training. Over decades of operation, NAPCO's approach has proven itself in the toughest environments: underground mines, offshore platforms, isolated chemical plants, and industrial sites where backup equipment is impractical.

This is why NAPCO pumps are specified by engineers and trusted by operators. It is not because of marketing—it is because the design delivers on its promise: a pump that keeps running, even in the field, even at 2 a.m., even in the middle of nowhere.

Repair Kit Installation Videos

See field rebuild in action. These three-part videos demonstrate the complete repair kit installation procedure for NAPCO rotary gear pumps.