Pump Person of the Week – Diego Paranhos

Today’s Pump Person of the Week is Diego Paranhos, Technical Assessment Engineer with Flowserve Onsite Services, and this is what he had to share!

Q. How did you get started working in your field?

Diego: I actually got into the pump industry during college as a co-op for Flowserve. Drexel University has a 5-year co-op program where you take three 6-month co-ops. I got the co-op job with Flowserve in 2006 and loved it so much that I came back for my other two co-ops. Once I graduated in 2010, I was offered an applications engineer job down in Pasadena, TX, where I started my full-time career. I have been here ever since taking roles as applications engineer, onsite at a refinery, and a regional reliability engineer role. I am currently the regional Technical Assessment Engineer, which means I work with sales and end-users to improve pump performance and reliability by collecting and analyzing data.

Q. What do you love the most about your job? What are you most proud of?

Diego: What I love most about my job is problem solving – investigating what is negatively impacting a pump, mechanical seal, and/or system, and collecting the data needed to show what is wrong, then having the knowledge to know how to fix it (hydraulic re-rate, mechanical upgrade, system changes, material change, etc.). That is truly what makes me wake up in the morning and head to work. I’m most proud of the knowledge I have passed on to my peers. It makes me very happy to see how I have influenced and taught a few things to them so they can use that knowledge in their daily tasks.

Q. What advice would you give to someone considering this line of work or new to the field?

Diego: I would tell them it is a very dynamic and exciting field to work in. Working in this industry opens a lot of opportunities depending on your personal career interests (sales, project manager, engineering, R&D, end-user, to name a few). It is also a safe work environment as we take safety as priority. Lastly, the amount of training you will get is astonishing as you will have a steep learning curve at first, then you will continue to grow that knowledge for the future.

Q. Can you talk about a project you recently worked on?

Diego: Recently, I worked on a system assessment job at a refinery where they have low reliability out of a few pumps which are critical to the unit. They have spent a lot of their maintenance budget on these pumps, so they brought me in to investigate what was happening and what improvements they could make. I came in with assistance from my team and onsite crew to install and collect data ranging from pressures, flows, temperatures, and vibration at various scenarios/line-ups. With that data I was able to recommend various critical upgrades to their current pumps and system. Presenting valuable data that shows the end-user how their pump and system is behaving is invaluable to them. The look on their faces when they see that is priceless!

I really want to thank Empowering Pumps and Charli K. Matthews for interviewing me and for building this connection hub for the industry. Y’all are doing great work. Keep it up!