Bathurst Water Treatment Plant meets Ragazzini perastaltic pumps

A chance meeting in the car park at the 2018 WIOA (Tamworth) conference between David Cashen (WIOA Operator of the Year and Supervisor of the Bathurst Water Treatment Plant) and Phil Rothheudt, the NSW Regional Manager for Hydro Innovations (H-I) led David to the H-I display stand featuring a Ragazzini peristaltic pump.

Hydro Innovations is an Australian-owned pump engineering company and is the exclusive Australian distributor for the world recognised Gorman-Rupp pump range, Edur Pumps from Germany, J S Proputec Lamella Pumps from Denmark, Venturi Aerators from the US, as well as the Ragazzini peristaltic pump range from Italy.

David’s plant had two peristaltic pumps transferring carbon slurry for use in the plant’s treatment process. The slurry is quite abrasive, so hoses needed replacing once or twice per year. This in itself was okay, but the hose changes were exceedingly messy because the pump casing needed to be filled with lubricating fluid—because of the “shoe on hose” design. In the event of a hose failure, a mixture of carbon slurry and lubricating oil resulted in a mammoth mess to clean up, inside and outside of the pump.

Hose replacements and the consequential cleanup of carbon mixed with lubricating oil could take days, and David also had the cost of the—not inexpensive—lubrication fluid to replace each time, on top of hose costs.

Once David had been shown the features and benefits of the Ragazzini peristaltic pump over his existing ones, he was convinced he had found the answer to his messy hose changing issues.

The Ragazzini peristaltic pump features a number of enhancements over other brands which make them highly reliable, easy to service and maintain, with features including:

• A “roller on bearings” design which eliminates the need for lubricating oil, reduces friction on hose (rollers instead of “shoes”) resulting in extended hose life
• An automatic retractable roller system for easy maintenance, hose change over and to take pressure off hoses during pump rest periods
• A leak detector to automatically stop the pump when a hose fails and send an alarm, which minimises product loss
• No (hose) lubricating oil in pump chamber; no mess to clean up or potential contamination of pumped product or surrounding area in the event of a hose failure, greatly simplifying hose change outs
• Choice of seven different hoses—the right hose for the right product
• Duties from 1L/hour up to 180,000L/hour, operating pressures up to 15 bar

Two Ragazzini model MSO pumps were subsequently supplied and one fitted immediately to see if it performed to expectations and to the promises made.

The one pump has now been operating since July 2018 (running continuously for up to 18–20 hours per day in the hotter periods). At a recent inspection in April 2019, there had been no hose failure or need to change out the original hose.

David Cashen’s expectations have been more than realised with not only a clean and reliable system to pump the carbon slurry, but a hose life that is up to nine months and still going.

The initial outlay has also been vindicated by the cost savings in down time and clean up time, reliability, reduced hose replacement and all round efficiency.

This partner content was brought to you by Hydro Innovations. For more information, visit hydroinnovatins.com.au

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