Pump it up"Centrifugal pumps have become more robust, with much tighter tolerances and stress analyses of components to increase efficiency and machine time to failure," according to Bruce Smith, North American sales manager for Fristam industrial Pumps Inc., Middleton, Wis. Shaft deflection that results in moving parts hitting stationary components in the pump is a major contributor to pump failure, and manufacturers are addressing that concern.Liquid ring pumps are coming into play in the industry as an alternative to standard centrifugal pumps, adds Smith. Although these scavenger pumps have been around for a quarter of a century, pharmaceutical manufacturers have embraced the technology and forced redesigns that chop have expanded their applications. Liquid ring pumps are particularly adept at handling fluids with entrained air, an issue with cream, which tends to foam during transit. Liquid ring pumps do a superior job in fully evacuating a tank, a material-savings advantage that appeals to ice cream manufacturers and liquid egg processors, saws according to Smith. Pump improvements have been accelerated with the application of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, points out Russell Jones, business development manager-pumps for Alfa Laval in Pleasant Prairie, Wis. "From an R&D point of view, CFD is a big advance in optimizing design and increasing pump efficiency," he says. The technology has been instrumental in boosting pump efficiencies from the 40 percent range to 60 to 70 percent in recent years.

The less invasive laser-assisted uvulopalatoplasty (LAUP) burns away excess tissue and is performed under local anesthesia on an outpatient basis. Yet its long-term effectiveness has yet to be established, and the pain can still land you in a new grotto of hell."The incision or the laser burn has to heal while you constantly breathe, talk and swallow, so the wound is always industrial being stretched, causing considerable pain," says John Shepard, M.D., medical director of the Mayo Clinic Sleep Disorders Center in Rochester, Minn. "One patient said that if he''d had a gun he would have shot himself, the chop pain was so bad." To be fair, others experience less discomfort--the equivalent of a bad sore throat for three or four days.

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