Mine drainage systems, which are used at the main drainage of mining enterprises, have a drive capacity of up to 1600kW. To reduce non-productive energy losses, as well as for the continuous operation of the mining company, mine pumps must be energy efficient and reliable. Analysis of downtime of drainage systems shows that the weak point is the unloading device. This fact can lead not only to the failure of the pumping unit, but also to possible prolonged downtime of the mine. The main disadvantage of the existing disk unloading devices of mine pumps is their low reliability and low service life, due to the rapid wear of the components of the unloading unit. The most vulnerable elements of the unloading device are the unloading rings. The need for frequent replacement and adjustment of the elements of the discharge unit is associated with disassembly and assembly of the pump directly in the pump chamber. Such actions require significant costs of unproductive manual labor of service personnel, and rapid wear of parts of the unloading device necessitates their constant replenishment. Malfunctions in the unloading device can cause significant pump failures. To increase the reliability and energy efficiency of mine drainage systems, the method of control of the unloading device was used. During the experimental studies it was found that cavitation phenomena during the operation of pumping units are absent and, accordingly, can not be the cause of wear of the elements of the unloading unit. When the pumps are operating in steady state, the displacement of the rotors was monitored for 3-4 hours on each pump unit. After data processing, it was obtained that the wear of the surface of the unloading rings occurs at a rate of 0.05-0.15mm in one hour. To determine the wear of the rings of unloading during start-up - stop of the pump, at first the indicators of measuring devices at the established mode of operation of the pump unit were fixed. Then the pump was turned off and on again. After starting the pump unit, we made sure that the operating mode of the unloading device did not change and compared the readings of the shaft position indicator before stopping and after starting the pump. From the measurements made it followed that stopping and starting the pump does not lead to noticeable wear of the unloading device. Therefore, it can be assumed that mainly the wear of the discharge rings occurs during the steady operation of the pump unit.
