marine dredge pump manufacturers

If you have experience pumping slurries, you know it's not an easy task. Slurries are heavy and difficult to pump. They cause excessive wear on pumps and their components and are known to clog suction and discharge lines if not moving fast enough. Most importantly, it’s a challenge to make slurry pumps last for a reasonable amount of time. But, there are a few things you can do to extend the life of your slurry pump and make pumping slurry less of a challenge.

As wear is a function of speed, slurry pumps should be operated at the lowest possible speed; units typically run at 1,200 rpm or less. Often, direct coupling between the pump and a low-speed motor or other drive makes the most sense. On the other hand, many other applications favour gearboxes to meet the required speed and operating point. In services where variable flow rates are required, variable frequency drives are used to provide the necessary continuous speed variation.

The terms 'flushing' and 'quench' often seem to be confused or misused when discussing seal support schemes for >slurry pumps. As the concepts of a mechanical seal cartridge and a filled seal cartridge are slightly different, I will discuss them separately and in turn.

Slurry pumps can also simply axially adjust the clearance between the impeller and the adjacent throat casing sealing surface. This helps to maintain pump performance when internal components begin to wear.

If centrifugal, are the impellers of the right design and material?

Process speed doesn’t have anything to do with choosing slurry pump impeller, but it does have an effect on the life of slurry pump impeller. It is important to find the sweet spot that allows the slurry pump to run as slow as possible, but fast enough to keep solids from settling and clogging. If pumping too fast, the slurry can quickly erode the impeller due to its abrasive nature. This is why it is important to select a larger impeller if possible.