Pump research and development: Past, present, and future

As in all areas relevant to the development and production of pumps the tasks the hydraulic engineer has to deal with have undergone a remarkable change in recent decades: from a more or less unrestricted design of components to design roles dictated by manufacturing techniques. These general trends are accompanied by developments related to changes of the market requirements. This is demonstrated for three particular pump types. The consequences of the demand to save energy-with all the different aspects-are described for the example of heating circulation pumps. The still growing environmental awareness is a challenge for an enlargement of the presently valid operation limits of sealless pumps and for the development of intelligent monitoring systems. It is demonstrated that the developments in the field of boiler feed pumps are closely related to the growing unit sizes. Availability and reliability, and as far as very large pumps are concerned the efficiency, have always been and still are the dominant criteria.