For more than 50 years, FELUWA has specialised in designing and manufacturing hose-diaphragm pumps, with the company’s MULTISAFE range carving out a niche in demanding pumping applications worldwide.
While traditional diaphragm pumps use a flat, circular diaphragm, the MULTISAFE pump uses a hose element softly actuated by hydraulic fluid, bringing significant benefits in wear characteristics and maintenance.
This distinction, which delivers reliability in environments where centrifugal pumps or flat-diaphragm designs struggle, has seen FELUWA gain significant traction across Australian industries.
Australian installations
FELUWA hose-diaphragm pumps have been applied in several specialised niches, including at Origin Energy’s Eraring power station in New South Wales.
Here, FELUWA pumps have been handling fly ash, an abrasive by-product of coal combustion, since 2006. These are among the largest FELUWA pumps operating in the country.
FELUWA has also supplied pumps to Glencore’s Murrin Murrin operation in Western Australia, where they have been installed for more than 25 years.
“Those installations prove the longevity of our pumps,” FELUWA Australia managing director Paolo Romagnoli said. “If they are maintained properly, a hose-diaphragm pump can operate effectively for 30 years or more.”
More recently, FELUWA was engaged to deliver pumps for Australia’s first autoclave gold processing facility at the Hemi gold project in Western Australia, set to the first Tier 1 gold in mine in the Pilbara. The pumps will feed solids-laden fluid at high pressure into autoclaves, representing a showcase application for hose-diaphragm technology in mining.
Innovation and sustainability
In recent decades, FELUWA has steadily enhanced its MULTISAFE hose-diaphragm pumps with advanced condition monitoring capabilities, with customers now able to track valve performance, pump operation, and energy efficiency in real time, either locally or remotely. This enables predictive maintenance and reduces downtime.
From a sustainability perspective, MULTISAFE pumps can achieve efficiency levels of around 95 per cent, with energy demand lower than other installations, where multiple centrifugal pumps might be in series.
The hose-diaphragm design also reduces the need for exotic alloys, as only the hose and valves come into contact with the pumped fluid.
“The pumps are designed for a lifetime of 30 years or more,” Romagnoli said. “When customers maintain them correctly, they avoid the waste and disruption of full pump replacement. That long service life is an important sustainability contribution.”
For more information, visit feluwa.com
