Goulds Pumps, headquartered in Seneca Falls, New York, was one of the premier American manufacturers of centrifugal pumps, supplying the US Navy with a broad range of pumping equipment for seawater service, freshwater, fuel transfer, and auxiliary applications throughout World War II and the Cold War. Goulds centrifugal pumps were installed across multiple ship types in bilge, ballast, fire main, seawater cooling, freshwater, and fuel service — making Goulds a major source of asbestos-containing pump components maintained by Machinist’s Mates throughout the fleet.

Asbestos in Goulds Pump Components

Goulds centrifugal pumps operating in Navy service used asbestos-containing sealing materials standard in pump construction of the era:

  • Shaft gland packing in the pump stuffing box — braided asbestos packing compressed around the rotating pump shaft providing shaft sealing on Goulds seawater, freshwater, and fuel service pumps. Stuffing box packing required periodic tightening (gland nut adjustment) and periodic replacement as packing wore, generating asbestos fiber during packing removal and new packing installation
  • Mechanical seal gaskets on higher-performance Goulds pump models using mechanical shaft seals — asbestos-containing gaskets between the mechanical seal housing and the pump casing on seal assembly
  • Pump body and flange gaskets at pump inlet and outlet flange connections to the piping system — asbestos sheet gasket material cut to fit the Goulds pump flange face dimensions at suction and discharge connections
  • Impeller-to-casing clearance rings in some Goulds pump designs used asbestos-containing materials on wear ring and clearance ring construction in the pump casing

Fleet-Wide Installation Record

Goulds Pumps held Navy supply contracts across the WWII and Cold War shipbuilding programs, supplying pumping equipment to multiple construction yards for installation during ship construction and through Navy supply channels for fleet-wide maintenance stock. Their pumps were used in bilge, ballast, fire main, seawater cooling, and potable water service on destroyers, cruisers, carriers, submarines, and auxiliaries — making Goulds pump packing maintenance a fleet-wide maintenance task.

Machinist’s Mate Maintenance Tasks

Machinist’s Mates responsible for auxiliary machinery maintenance performed routine Goulds pump maintenance:

  • Packing tightening — adjusting the gland nut to compress worn asbestos packing when a Goulds pump shaft began weeping at the stuffing box was a routine daily maintenance task in busy engineering plants
  • Packing replacement — removing and replacing the entire asbestos packing set in a Goulds pump stuffing box involved cutting new packing rings from asbestos packing stock and installing them in the stuffing box in a confined engineering space

VA Claims for Veterans Exposed to Goulds Pumps Products

VA evaluates asbestos-related disability claims on a case-by-case basis. Veterans generally need evidence of in-service asbestos exposure, a current asbestos-related diagnosis, and a medical link between them. Machinist’s Mates who performed centrifugal pump maintenance — including gland packing replacement on Goulds and other centrifugal pumps — and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or asbestos-related lung cancer may qualify for VA disability benefits.