NEWS
Issue 1 2014
NEWS FROM AXFLOW LIMITED
AxFlow Keeps On Growing
AxFlow GB sales increased by more than £1.1 million (7.6%) in 2013 to just under
£16 million, representing the 9th successive year of growth in what many people
perceived to be a very challenging economic cycle.
Our Huddersfield service base reported record levels of business across the
food, confectionary, chemical and environmental sectors and business out of our
Aberdeen base serving the offshore oil industry has also been buoyant. Service
and repair is now the keystone of our success and our other locations in Ealing,
Windsor and Durham all demonstrated their ability to provide service support.
Our range of products has expanded to include many new centrifugal pumps
which enhance our ability to meet our customers’ need for all pump types.
At AxFlow GB we are always working on new ideas, introducing products and
services, and given the recent reports of economic recovery in 2014 it should be a
very interesting year for AxFlow GB, reports Tony Peters AxFlow M.D.
Centrifugal Pumps Agreement
A new agreement to distribute Aturia centrifugal pumps in the UK is a major development that expands the AxFlow GB pump offering.
This new product range features DIN, ISO, split case, mag drive, borehole and regenerative turbine pumps.
“Adding Aturia to our portfolio provides
us with another 20 ranges of ‘mainstream’
centrifugal pumps,” reports Malcolm
Walker, AxFlow centrifugal pumps manager.
“With three manufacturing plants in Italy,
Aturia is one of the country’s largest pump
manufacturers as well as being one of its
oldest. By taking on Aturia products, we
have added to our already extensive range
of high-end cost effective and technically
sound pumps for the process, water, food,
and pharmaceutical industries.” He goes
on to say that: “Our hope is that many of
our existing customers who buy positive
displacement pumps from AxFlow will also
take the opportunity to use us for more
conventional centrifugal pumps”.
This move enables AxFlow to offer the most
comprehensive range of technical pumps
in the country and when added to the
company’s engineering and maintenance
services establishes it as one, if not the,
leading independent supplier of pumps and
pump related products in Great Britain.
NEWS
2014
Changing Pump Type Is A Success For Meadow Foods
Making the decision to change pumps on existing processing
lines can be a difficult decision to take. When the existing pumps
have been in place for several years and are constantly giving
problems, finding the right supplier capable of offering the most
appropriate pump type can make the decision easier.
At Meadow Foods’ Holme on Spalding Moor plant in Yorkshire,
the chocolate crumb production lines had for many years relied
upon five rotary lobe pumps for transferring the mix of cocoa
and condensed milk which makes up the crumb from process
tanks to driers. The problem was that the pumps were constantly
breaking down due to excess back pressure on the mechanical
seals, and being obsolete the repairs and maintenance were
becoming costly and irritating. Typically, pulling out the pumps
and refurbishing them was taking around 14 hours, and spares
had to be kept in reserve.
Chocolate crumb is a difficult product to pump as it is thick
and highly viscous at its production temperature of 40ºC and
it becomes even more challenging when it cools as it tends to
solidify. This in turns puts great back pressure on the pumps.
Should there be any pump break downs remedial action has to be
taken to avoid the crumb solidifying. Given the experience with
Waukesha Universal 1 series pumps in other parts of the plant,
AxFlow were asked for advice. After examining the application
and nature of the pumped medium, a decision was taken in
2012 to remove the old pumps and replace them with Waukesha
130U1’s fitted with double O-ring greased packed seals.
“Our decision was to supply the pumps with motors, gear boxes
and mountings suitable for hygienic applications,” says AxFlow’s
Brendan Orange. “Meadow Foods have told us that the motors
are saving energy and that the reliability of the pumps is excellent
and none have needed to be touched since their installation
some 18 months ago. In fact maintenance has been reduced
substantially and now is largely confined to checking oil levels.
Wernert Submersible Pumps For Chemical Effluent Transfer
First installed in 2010 and added to in 2012, all five pumps were
required in order that the plant could comply with new emission
controls. It is important that the continuous transfer of the
chemical effluent is done reliably in order to prevent an overflow
that could result in an emission to the local waterway. The
Wernert pump is capable of handling this challenging application
as it is especially suited to pumping liquids that are contaminated
with solids. It is a true ‘cantilever shaft pump’, having support
bearings above any process liquid, thus eliminating need for
external bearing lubrication or chance of wear due to exposure to
the process liquid.
Wernert vertical VKPF- 50-250 pumps are proving to be a great
success for transferring chemical effluent from collection tanks to
a treatment/neutralisation facility at a chemical processing plant
in the north of England.
Sometimes referred by to Wernert as ‘forget me pumps’ because
of their reliability, AxFlow now has five variable speed vertical,
cantilever shaft pumps handling a mixed acidic solution. The
chemical plant produces refrigerants/propellants such as A22
and Klea, and because of the highly corrosive and hazardous
nature of the effluent, the pump shaft in the liquid area is
protected by a plastic sleeve whilst the bearing in the thrust
bearing lantern is protected from aggressive vapours and gases
by a PTFE radial shaft seal ring.
New Faces At AxFlow
It has been another busy year at
AxFlow, so we have been strengthening
key areas of our business throughout
the country. Joining AxFlow in the past
few months have been:
NEWS
This type of pump is not provided with any sealing against the
pumped liquid because leakages flow out above the impeller
through lateral openings in the delivery suspension pipe.
“When it came to designing and building the pump installation,
the challenges involved matching the required duty, ensuring
the pumps were able to withstand the fluid duty and designing
a means to easily remove the pumps when required,” says Mike
Buhagiar, AxFlow Senior Sales Engineer - Process Equipment.
“We were called on to offer technical advice and explain the
pump details,” he continues. “We provided cross sectional
drawings to explain the pump construction, supplied the pumps
on time and offered installation and commissioning advice.
To date, pump performance has been good and very reliable,
no pump changes have been necessary and only minimal
maintenance has been required.”
John Dixon – Windsor Base Manager
Malcolm Walker – Centrifugal Pump
Product Manager
Alistair Smith – Aberdeen CAD
Justin Campbell – NW Sales
Steve Jowett – SE Sales
Paul Brady – Windsor Site Engineer
Michael Pitt – Windsor Site Engineer
Chris Young – Windsor Sales Support
Jake Pestell – Ealing CAD
Andrew Woodhead – Ealing Accounts
Martina Adams – Huddersfield Admin
Max Peters - Apprentice
2014
Blackmer Pumps For Forecourt Fuel Offloading
Berrys Technologies, providers of bespoke
solutions to the petrol forecourt trade,
have teamed up with AxFlow for unloading
fuel from road tankers at a number of
supermarket sites around the UK. This
collaboration follows changes in legislation
determining the positioning of fuel storage
tanks at ground level in service stations.
Traditionally, bulk fuel storage tanks
have been located below ground, but
with greater consideration being to
environmental sensitivity, new
service stations should have
ground level storage tanks
where they are considered
appropriate and feasible.
Throughout 2012 and 2013,
AxFlow has been supplying its
Blackmer sliding vane pumps
to Berrys Technologies for fuel
unloading from road tankers at
various supermarket sites.
The bespoke fuel unloading
systems include the awardwinning MIDAS (Miss Fuel Identification
& Avoidance System) which allows only
the correct fuel to enter the storage tanks.
The cast iron Blackmer rotary sliding vane
pumps are fitted within the system for
pumping Unleaded Petrol, Ethanol and
Diesel Fuel typically at rates of 995 l/min.
The Blackmer X Series pump is a unique
sliding vane design which self-adjusts
for wear to maintain flow rates. Having
excellent self-priming and dry-running
Air Distribution System Makes Savings
A new air distribution system (ADS) from Wilden can achieve up to
60% savings in air consumption is now available from AxFlow.
The Pro-Flo® SHIFT Air
Distribution System (ADS)
for use in Advanced™
Series bolted and Original™
Series clamped air-operated
double diaphragm (AODD)
pumps is a significant
breakthrough in energy
efficiency, enabling
manufacturing plants to
reduce air consumption
and reduce their carbon
footprints. The revolutionary
design of the patentpending Pro-Flo SHIFT
ADS allows Wilden AODD
pumps to achieve significant
savings in air consumption over all competitive AODD pump
technologies, while providing greater product yield per standard
cubic foot per minute (SCFM).
“The Pro-Flo SHIFT represents a giant leap forward in the energy
efficiency and performance of AODD pumps,” says Peter Carfrae,
AxFlow’s Wilden Pumps product manager. “The simple design of
the ADS doesn’t require any additional bolted-on equipment or
bulky electronics, allowing operators to keep the same compact
footprint. The system incorporates an air control spool which
automatically meters the air requirement between the pump’s two
air chambers, eliminating any overfills without
a corresponding reduction in product flow.”
Using the SHIFT air system with Wilden’s new ‘Full Flow’ PTFE
diaphragms not only reduces air usage, but by slowing down the
pump to match the previous flow rate achieved with normally
fitted PTFE diaphragms it is possible to increase diaphragm life
and reduce MTBF. What’s more, if an increase in flow is required
for a future application, then the pump will meet this demand.
Significantly, it also costs 50% less than electronically actuated
ADS, is submersible and features plug-and-play operation. For
existing Wilden AODD pump users the SHIFT air system can be
offered as a full retrofit kit, so that a controlled conversion can
be achieved at a reduced price, delivering the benefits of SHIFT
technology from day one.
NEWS
capabilities, not only does this pump offer
long and reliable operating life, but it is
simple to maintain without having to be
removed from the piping system.
Known as a line-stripping pump, the
Blackmer enables the road tanker drivers
to offload the correct volume of fuel to the
top of the storage tanks without leaving
any fuel in the flexible hoses. This makes
them hugely popular with the tanker
drivers as they do not have to move heavy
fuel-laden hoses at the end of the offloading operation.
Storage of fuel in above ground is not a
new concept, in fact the technology is
sound and has been around for years,
but due to site constraints and trying to
maximise parking at service stations,
the preferred method has been to bury
the storage tanks. However, this is now
changing and together, Berrys and AxFlow
are providing and safe and efficient
methods of transferring all types of fuel
from road tankers to storage tanks.
Crunch Time For Crisps
When you are in the business of producing one million packets
of potato crisps a day, the last thing that is wanted is for a
critical processing component to fail. Should that scenario
occur, then the immediate availability of either a replacement
part or repair facility is the only solution.
When the failure of a hot oil pump occurred at Seabrook
Crisps in Bradford in early 2013, the prospect of having to shut
down production to remove the pump from service became a
reality. Minimising the shut down period was essential. Having
worked with Seabrook Crisps for around four years, AxFlow
Huddersfield was only too well aware of the consequences of
a prolonged shutdown and pulled out all the stops to get the
Cornell Hot Oil pump back on line.
“This is a specialist type of pump for the food industry and
at Seabrook Crisps it is in operation 24 hours a day pumping
thermal fluid at a temperature of 255˚C, so it is subjected to
considerable workload,”
commented Mark
Redgrove, AxFlow’s
Technical Support
Manager.
Thermal fluid is a
slightly viscous mineral
oil and the fluctuating
temperature of this has
an adverse effect on
the mechanical seal.
The working life of the
mechanical seal can
vary between 12 and 18
months, but predicting
seal failure is imprecise.
Once removed from
service, close inspection
revealed that the mechanical seal, bearings, lip seals
and gaskets all needed renewing and work commenced
immediately. “Mechanical seal repair and replacement
is one of the many engineering services that we offer at
Huddersfield,” says Mark Redgrove. “Fortunately for Seabrook
Crisps we were familiar with this type of food industry pump
and sealing arrangement and had the necessary components
available. The time taken from collecting the pump, doing the
repairs and returning it to the site was just six hours.”
2014
Process Pumps For Biscuit Production
Within food processing, many products and ingredients require a
pumping system that handles the media in a gentle and leak-free
manner.
At a location in the Midlands Waukesha Universal 1 pumps are
proving to be highly successful in handling cream fat, this being
a key ingredient in several of the manufacturer’s biscuit lines.
Model 18s and 30s are used for transferring product at around
750kg/hr to dedicated production lines and model 60s are run on
a batch process for transferring the cream as and when needed
at a volume of 2000kg/hr. The consistency of the cream fat is
similar to that of margarine and is handled at 30ºC. The challenge
of pumping this type of material is that a gear type pump would
break up the structure of the material, hence the use of the
Waukesha Universal pumps.
In 2012 the same plant took the step of introducing Waukesha
U2 pumps for handling plasticised dough fat. The difficulty with
this media is that at times relatively high back pressures can be
created due to the length and complexity of the production lines.
Typically pressures of up to 15bar were being encountered and
the existing pumps were not designed for that level of pressure.
Initially it was considered that the Waukesha models already in
use at the plant would be suitable for handling the plasticised
dough. On reviewing the pressures and flow rates required,
AxFlow recommended Waukesha U2 pumps fitted with
mechanical seals rather than the client’s preferred option of a
double O ring. With the Waukesha U2 pump, the plant can now
accommodate pressures of 20bar.The Waukesha pumps are kind
to both the plasticised dough and cream fat as they do not crush
these products, thereby keeping their desired consistency.
Water Pumping Station Gets An Upgrade
As part of the water company’s programme
of investment for capital maintenance
engineers identified that the obsolete
pumps had become less efficient and
unreliable, prompting the need to reduce
possible future failure either by replacement
or refurbishment. Examination of one pump
at AxFlow’s Windsor service base revealed
substantial wear and component fatigue.
Specifically, the suction impeller was eaten
away requiring reverse engineering to
bring it back to the original specification.
Rather than purchasing a replacement
pump the water company opted for
the comprehensive repair and rebuild
programme option as it provided the best
return on investment.
A water pumping station supplying
fresh water to around 300,000 homes
to the west of London has had its three
ageing Weir two-stage high head split
volute water transfer pumps upgraded by
AxFlow Windsor.
The initial programme of works included
replacing the pump bearings, motor
bearings, mechanical seal, propshaft,
universal joints, gaskets, efficiency liner,
together with reverse engineering the
suction impeller, dismantling the motor
and testing the windings, rebalancing
the propshaft, shot-blasting, painting and
reassembly.
At the time of this work being carried out,
the two remaining pumps and motors
indicated problems, potentially leaving the
station with reduced capacity. As a result of
the two pumps running at high speeds and
temperatures, both the motors burned out
on the same day. However, a suitable motor
was found in another part of the country
so the station was up and running within
days without there being any impact on the
supply to the water company’s customers.
Following this repair work the water
company started a programme of repairing
the two remaining pumps and after a
due tendering process, AxFlow Windsor
commenced the refurbishment of these
pumps in 2012. With all three refurbished
pumps installed and commissioned in
the summer of 2013, the pumping station
now has the capacity to pump up to 360
megalitres per day at a head up 11.5bar,
using just two pumps. The pumps and
motors have been given a new lease of life
and the water company’s customers can
look to many more years of service from
the pumping station.
AxFlow Ltd, London Head Office: Tel: 020 8579 2111 E: info@axflow.co.uk www.axflow.co.uk
Aberdeen Base
T: 01224 729367
Huddersfield Base T: 01484 543649
Windsor Base
T 01344 886633
Durham Base
T: 01325 327322
NEWS
E: infoscot@axflow.co.uk
E: service@axflow.co.uk
E: soservice@axflow.co.uk
E: neservice@axflow.co.uk
2014