What is the diffrence between centrifugal & resiprocative pumps?
Centrifugal pumps are pumps which uses impellers, while reciprocating pumps uses cylinders.Centrifugal pumps are used usually for liquids which has high viscosity such as water while reciprocating pumps are used for fluids of low viscosity such as oil.Reciprocating pumps usually operates at lower speeds 1150 rpm motors compared to 1750 to 3540 rpm for centrifugal pumps. If you want positive displacement with no problems of priming, use reciprocating pumps. Centrifugal pumps could lose prime when there is a leak in the pump casing. Reciprocating pumps are constant flow and head pumps while the centrifugal pumps are variable flow and head pumps. A pump flow and discharge head can be increased by increasing its speed. In reciprocting pumps , the speed has to remain the same. The flow can be increased with a change in cylinder and piston diameter.
