Smarter pumps for thicker pumping

N300-36 Surface transfer pumps at Thames Water's Mogden Lane Plant

Though the prime function of a mine or quarry is to extract and process minerals, they’re not the only things that need to be handled. There are also huge amounts of process water involved, which has to be extracted even when the mine is not in production. So these applications need a pump which can handle products entrained with solids with varying viscosities – everything from mine waste water (dewatering), to tailings, calcium carbonate slurries and aluminium sulphates. Fortunately, seepex has now made a pump precisely for this job, which is smarter and more efficient than ever.

Progressive cavity pumps have a characteristic feature; the conveying elements are formed by the intersecting geometries of a helical rotor and a double internal helical stator. With each pump designed according to the unique requirements of the industry sector, the application, and the product being pumped, this means that whether you need to transport extremely viscous media, precisely meter the smallest quantities, maintain the highest levels of hygiene, or resist the erosion caused by abrasive solids, seepex has the solution.

For mined or quarried material with a high proportion of solids, for sludges, grout, non-flowable products and products requiring handling with minimum shear (such as flocculants and oily water) a progressive cavity pump provides efficient, cost-effective handling – even for aggressive media or over long distances (see the Thames Water case study right). The versatility of the progressive cavity pump can be further extended by fitting various options of open hoppers and feeding arrangements, to assist non- flowable products into the rotor/stator pumping elements.

World’s largest tunnel boring machine
The construction of Madrid’s inner ring road involved the world’s largest earth pressure balanced tunnel boring machine at the time, weighing 4,000 tonnes. seepex pumps were used to handle bentonite slurry, employed as a spoil conditioning agent in the tunnelling machines.

seepex UK were involved in the process from the initial specification of the correct type of pump for the application, to the design, manufacture and shipping.

World’s largest progressive cavity pumps
11m long and almost 7 tonnes in weight, the seepex n300-36 surface transfer pumps installed at Thames Water’s Mogden Lane sewage treatment plant are probably the world’s largest. Pumping 180m3/hr of 8% thickened sludge to another treatment plant 16km distant, each pump is powered by a 250kw electric motor, to deliver a world-leading combination of flow and pressure.

A milestone in progressive cavity pump development, the pumps were delivered in a record-breaking 16 weeks from the start of design work. The rotor – manufactured from a single piece of steel and measuring almost 6m in length – is engineered to within accuracies of 0.2mm.