The Right Pump Is In The Application Detail:

From chemical dosing to fuel transfer to food and drink handling to removing waste fluids, the industrial market relies heavily on pumps to deliver their process. When sourcing a pump, it’s essential to understand that a pump that works isn’t necessarily the right pump – what works in one application, isn’t necessarily ideal for another.

After almost 15 years specifying pumps to manufacturing plants and industrial facilities worldwide, Castle Pumps understand how the right pump is in the detail of the application…

It starts with an enquiry

Castle Pumps received an enquiry from an industrial paint and powder coating manufacturer looking for a pump to transfer a mixture of recycled oils and flammable solvents.

The application involves pumping the fluid from a 70,000litre waste tank into separate IBCs that are shipped off for the fluid to be refined. Once recycled, the solution comes back and is pumped into a second 70,000 litre tank on site.

This is then used to clean down used drums and containers to remove any paint and coating residue remaining in them. After use, it is pumped back into the original waste tank and so the cycle continues.

As the solvent/oil mix is constantly being reused, the process that this pump helps to deliver saves the company thousands of pounds each year. The customer expressed the importance of a reliable pump to ensure there is no downtime or delay in the supply of the recycled solution.

Getting the right solution

The key things Castle Pumps needed to consider when selecting the right solution was the flammable nature of the solvents, the potential debris content and the reliability of the pump due to the importance of the process to the customer.

After talking through the performance requirements with the customer, one of the first things Castle Pumps’ technical sales engineer did was confirm that there was air supply on-site. 

Air operated diaphragm pumps are ideal for industrial applications involving process fluids and chemicals due to the various material options they can be constructed of and their ability to handle varying viscosities and solids which could be present in this waste fluid. 

Secondly, its seal-less design makes it ideal for handling hazardous fluids like the solvents this customer needed to pump, as it reduces the chance of fluid leaking out due to wear.

Castle Pumps specified a Boxer 100 AODD pump in stainless steel with PTFE balls and seats for compatibility with the solvents contained in the MSDS sheet provided by the customer. To ensure safety pumping the flammable solvent mixture, this model was supplied ATEX certified to Zone 1.

One of the greatest benefits of the Debem AODD pumps that Castle Pumps represent is their long life, low maintenance design. They are made with long-life diaphragms designed for more than 50 million cycles and have a lot fewer internal wearing parts to maintain compared to equivalent air operated diaphragm pumps; 30 versus a typical 72. This was a particularly attractive feature to the customer given the regular use of the pump.

www.castlepumps.com