PUMPING equipment, like all other types of machinery, must be conserved so as to release more men, material, and machine tools for the vital purpose of producing for victory. To achieve this end, no machine should be allowed to use up more than its normal ration of energy. The better designs of pumping equipment have been built to operate continuously year after year with only sufficient lost time to follow a definite maintenance time table, but that time table is all important. Every pumping unit in a given plant should be classified as to its maintenance requirements and grouped in a maintenance index with all others requiring the same pattern for servicing. Although operating conditions in each plant vary greatly, making it impossible to set up one maintenance time table for all pumping units, four major factors influencing a pump maintenance system will help in classifying units. They are: (1) Number of operating hours ...