Crating pumps

A pump is heavy, compact and full of steel

Most pumps are cast iron or stainless on a fabricated baseplate, driven by an electric motor or engine through a coupling. They survive drops that would ruin a gauge, but they rust, they take water through every opening, and a bent shaft or a chipped seal face turns a good pump into scrap.

The crate has three jobs: hold the baseplate down so nothing shifts, close every port so nothing gets in, and keep the machined shaft and flange faces away from wood and moisture.

Slurry pumps, fire pumps, dosing pumps and hydraulic gear pumps each carry something different on board. A fire pump set often has a diesel engine and a day tank, which brings in the fuel rules covered on the [generators](/crating/generators) page. A dosing pump has a delicate diaphragm and a small controller. Name the duty and we will flag what must come off.

How the pump is held down

The baseplate has mounting holes, and those are the anchor points. We lag bolt through each hole into the skid, using washers wide enough to spread the load, and add a crossbearer under any foot that sits between skid members. On a long pump-and-motor set, the bearing housings are blocked as well so the shaft is not asked to carry weight.

Vertical pumps and submersibles are laid down on cradles shaped to the casing. A long vertical turbine pump is best shipped as separate bowl and column sections, each bolted to its own cradle.

Shaft, seal and flanges

Blank every opening. Suction and discharge flanges get a gasketed cover plate or a rigid cap, and drain, vent and gauge ports get a threaded plug. A flange face left bare picks up scratches in transit that a gasket cannot hide, and an open port lets rain in as readily as dirt.

The shaft is coated with preservative grease or wrapped in VCI paper, and the coupling guard is fitted or the coupling is taken apart and bagged. A mechanical seal is protected by locking the shaft so the faces do not rub on a long truck ride.

• Flange covers fixed with bolts, not tape
• Threaded plugs in drain and vent ports
• Shaft locked, greased and wrapped
• Coupling guard fitted or coupling bagged
• Gauges and sensing lines removed and boxed

Preventing rust and moisture damage

A pump left damp in a container will bloom with rust in days. We wrap the unit in a barrier bag with desiccant, and fix VCI emitters near the bearing housings and the inside of the casing. For stainless pumps, the VCI is chosen so it does not stain. See [rust prevention with VCI](/guides/rust-prevention-vci) for the limits of each product.

The motor deserves its own care. The windings and the terminal box are sealed, and if the pump sits in the crate for months the shaft is turned by hand before commissioning.

Choosing the crate

A single pump fits a [skid-base crate](/crates/types/skid-base) with a top frame and wall rails. A pump bound for sea freight gets sheathing, or a wrapped bag inside a slatted shell. For multiple identical pumps, ask about a shared pallet crate. The [machinery crating guide](/guides/crating-machinery) covers the general approach, and [machinery](/crating/machinery) sets out what goes on the quote.

Marks matter on a pump: sling points on the baseplate lifting eyes, a centre-of-gravity mark biased toward the motor, and ISO 780 symbols on the walls.

Pump packages, skids and multi-unit orders

Many pumps leave the factory as packages: pump, motor, baseplate, coupling guard, instrumentation and sometimes a small control panel, all mounted on one skid. The package skid is already a steel frame, so we crate over it and bolt that frame down. Piping spools and valves that stick out are removed, flange faces covered and the spools bundled in the same crate.

For repeat orders, such as a series of identical process pumps for one plant, we make the spec once and write it down. The second and tenth units then ship in the same pattern. If the units are small, ask about stacking in tiers with a divider deck between them; a pump should never carry another pump's weight.