Dry-running Screw Vacuum Pumps Reduce Maintenance Costs for Alarm Manufacturer

With the installation of six, new dry-running screw vacuum pumps from Elmo Rietschle, Eaton’s Crouse-Hinds business, a designer and manufacturer of alarm, signal, control and notification equipment continues to benefit from increased uptime and a return on investment within twelve months.

Based in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottingham, Eaton’s Crouse-Hinds business manufactures an extensive range of manual, visual and audible alarms and loudspeakers specifically designed for harsh environmental conditions and where there is a risk of explosion due to the presence of flammable atmospheres, both offshore and onshore.

Due to the performance of the S-VSI 300 pumps from Elmo Rietschle, Eaton’s Crouse-Hinds business has recently placed an order for two more units, with further orders expected in the future.

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Eaton’s Crouse-Hinds business was previously using oil sealed vacuum pumps within its moulding process, which led to regular breakdowns.

Lawrence Marson, maintenance engineer at Eaton’s Crouse-Hinds business explains:

“For a more consistent finish, we use a slightly different method to the ‘traditional’ vacuum moulding process when manufacturing our products.”

The amount of downtime experienced due to maintenance of the previous vacuum pumps used within this process led Eaton’s Crouse-Hinds business to look for a new supplier.

“We were visited by an Elmo Rietschle engineer, who explained how the dry running S-VSI 300 ‘Twister’ screw vacuum pumps could significantly reduce our issues with breakdowns,” said Lawrence.

The S-VSI 300 is a dry-running screw vacuum pump, which needs no coolant or sealing medium in the suction chamber. The pump is water-cooled and offers low heat emission into the environment. With oil free exhaust air, and no oil discharge filters to replace, the S-VSI 300 is easy to service and has high vapour and water tolerance.

“The evidence that Elmo Rietschle provided in our initial discussions gave us the confidence to install six, new S-VSI 300 pumps – two per moulding machine,” Lawrence explains.

“As they’re dry running and water-cooled, there’s no oil for any debris to stick to in the S-VSI 300s, and they operate consistently 24/7.

“The new machines are now serviced every six months, which has significantly reduced our maintenance costs. The pumps are installed in cradles, which can be stacked, meaning they can be easily swapped out for scheduled maintenance without disrupting operation.

“We’re so pleased with how the S-VSI 300s have been performing that we’ve recently placed an order for two more pumps for another moulding machine, and expect to install Elmo Rietschle pumps on two more machines in the near future, meaning we’ll have twelve to thirteen S-VSI 300s on site in total.”

Lawrence concludes:

“Deciding to change our vacuum pump technology was a big leap as we’d been using the previous machines for a number of years. Elmo Rietschle provided the evidence that gave us the confidence to change and we haven’t looked back since, which is why we’ll be ordering more S-VSI 300s in the future. We expect the existing pumps to have paid for themselves within just twelve months.”