Product Description
Warren Pumps allegedly supplied centrifugal pumps to the U.S. Navy across the mid-twentieth century, including fire-and-bilge control pumps, emergency feed pumps, and other shipboard service pumps that ran continuously in Navy engineering spaces. Plaintiffs alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that Warren Navy pumps were built with stuffing boxes sealed by braided asbestos packing rings — the industry-standard shaft-sealing material for shipboard rotating equipment through the asbestos era.
Braided asbestos packing rings were cut to length from spool stock, hand-formed to the shaft-and-box geometry, and driven into place with a packing tool. During service the packing progressively glazed, extruded, and eroded — requiring periodic repack cycles. Removing spent packing with a picker or corkscrew tool allegedly liberated dry, degraded asbestos fibers directly into the operator’s breathing zone. Cutting fresh packing rings from spool stock generated additional fiber release from the braided material.
Workers Exposed
- Machinist’s mates (MM) repacking Warren pumps during shipboard maintenance, watch turnover repairs, and casualty response.
- Boiler tenders (BT) working the paired boiler-feed, condensate, and fire-and-bilge systems that Warren pumps served.
- Enginemen (EN) on ships whose auxiliary machinery included Warren pumps.
- Shipyard machinists performing Navy-yard and private-yard Warren pump depot overhauls during availabilities.
- Pipefitters (UA) breaking suction and discharge lines at pump flange connections.
- Millwrights re-aligning pumps and drivers after packing renewal.
Bystanders in shared machinery spaces breathed fibers released by ring extraction and cutting.