Linatex partner up with Aggregate Industries and prove the new G4 pump is a winner!

With over 65 years of extensive experience in producing wear resistant premium rubber lined pumps, Linatex recently decided to produce an all new pump, making it "best in class."

In order to prove the new pump a partner was found in Aggregate Industries, Blackhill Quarry in Devon; who not only required a new modern product, but more importantly wanted to save costs, with the main focus being on efficient power consumption. Blackhill Quarry processes Quartzite material producing a fine and coarse sand and a range of natural and crushed High PSV aggregates for use in the local market.

Aggregate Industries quarries, manufactures and supplies a wide range of heavy building materials to the construction industry. Through continued innovation and investment the company has been certified The Responsible Source^TM offering a diverse portfolio of sustainable solutions to complement their traditional offering.

As operating costs in terms of power usage alongside reducing CO² were an important element within the company strategy a mutual decision was made to test two sizes of the new Linatex pumps on completely different duties, utilising the existing on-site Linatex Sand Classification Plant.

The new Linatex G4 Rubber Pump offers four key elements:

• Greater serviceability.
• High efficiency.
• Extended service life.
• Lowest total operating cost to the end user.

As serviceability is always a key issue the new pump also offers:

• A removable and replaceable front liner.
• The impeller and gland can be removed through the front liner without splitting the pump casing halves.
• The casing can be split for a full pump rebuild without removing the discharge pipework, due to the novel discharge adaptor (with health and safety in mind).
• The new D gland has a one bolt adjustment, outside the guarded area, for ease of adjustment and for health and safety reasons.
• Impeller release mechanism - no special spanner required.
• High efficiencies.

A High Efficiency Application:

The application involved feeding a Linatex G4 DW Hydrocyclone (seperator) Separator with a coarse sand (concrete sand) at 150 tph @ < 5mm, using a 200/150 generic pump size. And secondly, a fine sand (building sand) at 7 tph @ < 2mm, using a 150/100 generic pump size.

Two of the existing pumps were replaced, including the motors as below;

Existing pump   Existing Motor    New G4 Pump        New Motor         Reduction

200/150                55kw                        G4-200                    45kw               10kw

150/125               22kw                         G4-150                    18.5kw           3.5kw

The equipment was installed in July 2009, and has now successfully completed seven months of trouble free operation, which equates roughly to 1445 hours, based on a 48 hour week.  The site kindly supplied the current reading with the existing pumps and the new G4 pumps, as per the table below;

Pump size    Previous       Power     New current        New power   Saving

Coarse           90 amps        53.7kw      78 amps                 44.3kw         9.4kw

Fine                 30 amps        16kw         20 amps                  9kw             7kw

The power saving can be calculated using an electrical cost of £0.09p per kw/h, at expected annual operating hours of 2400.  The table below indicates the existing annual operating cost against the new G4 installation;

Pump size     Existing cost           New cost      Saving           % Saving     

Course            £11,599.20              £9,568.80       £2,030.40      17.5%

Fine                 £3,456.00                £1,944.00       £1,512.00      43.75%

Cost Saving Benefits:

The test operated under site conditions comparable to existing installations, undoubtedly proves the cost saving benefits of the G4 Rubber Pump in terms of power.  With improved serviceability the pump was well received by all on-site personnel.  Particular interest was shown in the "front pull out" where the impeller and gland assembly can be removed via the front door. Also the simplicity of one bolt adjustment for the D type gland received favourable comments.

The wear to date (the last inspection being 22/01/2010) is minimal, despite in the case of the coarse sand pump, the particle size being as high as 5mm.  Accurate service life predictions of the main wearing wet end components is challenging given the minimal wear seen to date.

The test however clearly demonstrated the savings to be achieved by higher efficiency equipment, alongside the environmental benefits.  Furthermore, available overall savings increase significantly with the larger installed pumping equipment, having larger motors, along with greater volumes of installations. An additional benefit of higher efficiency equipment is that smaller motors can be generally used, which will reduce the capital cost.

Commenting on the success of the trial, Duncan McIntosh (Quarries Operations Manager), said, "The new pumps have certainly met our requirements to reduce power consumption. At the same time, these pumps are so much easier and safer to work on. The levels of wear to date have been impressive compared to the old style pump."

Following these successful tests, the all new Linatex G4 Rubber Pump was  released for sale throughout Europe in June 2010.

 www.linatex.co.uk