A Houston based oil company was building their pumping units utilizing the SP-style power takeoffs (PTO with pilot bearing) mated with natural gas engines. This company often had to use a countershaft (or jackshaft) in order to get the speed reduction needed and keep within the sideload limitations of the PTO on these units. When this stock was sold, they found that the purchasers placed much of this pumping equipment in harsh, remote locations. Proper maintenance schedules at the sites were inconvenient at best. The pilot bearings in these PTOs would operate for long periods without being engaged. The end user’s lengthy runtimes and improperly maintained PTOs would create excessive work and wear that impacted the pilot bearing, ultimately leading to premature failure of the clutch. In addition, the transmission of high-side loads to the PTO created fatigue in the main bearings leading to failures.
WPT worked with the client, and they switched the SP-style PTO to the Pilotless™ Mechanical PTO. Because of this changeover, they could eliminate the jackshaft arrangement and use a small driving sheave to get the needed speed reduction. It did away with the costs of the shaft, sheaves, bearings, and other items from the setup, which proved to be immediate savings. The Pilotless™ PTO also features longer greasing intervals than the predecessor requiring fewer maintenance schedule visits. There have been no sideload-related failures since the switch.
WPT’s Pilotless™ design enhances well production, which equals more yield. The field-proven Pilotless™ MPTO eliminates the problem-prone pilot bearing while increasing the side load capacity over standard mechanical PTOs. Together, this optimized solution created more uptime, durability, and less maintenance. This customer has switched to WPT Pilotless™ 100% in their pumping equipment!