The
UK paper industry’s first Discflo pump has reduced downtime in
pumping paper stock to almost zero and has cut machine downtime by
12 hours a month, which yields savings of approximately £96,000
[$150,000] a year.
The paper stock, which includes recycled
de-inked stock, is around 4% consistency and contains 5–7%
entrained air. The pump feeds stock to the paper machine and if it
fails, the entire paper machine goes down. The previous pump, a
centrifugal type commonly used for stock pumping, suffered frequent
breakdown and cavitation problems, due to the high level of
entrained air. The mill engineering manager is delighted with the
disc pump’s performance: “Since start up, the Discflo pump has
performed 100%.”
Case Study: Green
Liquor
The
green liquor pump shown above has been running for over two years at
a pulp mill in Finland. That is over 1½ years longer than any other
pump used previously. The first Discflo pump has run 24 hours a day
since start up without requiring any maintenance and at a recent
inspection, showed no signs of wear.
The mill manager is very pleased with the
Discflo pump’s performance and says: “This pump has really
fulfilled its promises.” The company subsequently placed an order
for more Discflo pumps.
Case Study: Clarifier
Sludge
The
clarifier sludge being pumped at this paper mill in Arkansas is 70%
sand mixed with water and salt brine. The company previously used
two self-priming centrifugal pumps to move 450 GPM of sludge from
the cooling tower.
These pumps broke down on average once every
six weeks and suffered badly from wear due to the highly abrasive
nature of the sludge and the high solids content. The plant manager
estimated he was spending around $21,000 per year per pump on spare
parts.
The company then installed a disc pump to
replace the two centrifugal pumps. Since start-up over two years
ago, they have been operating with zero downtime.
Case Study: Various
Applications
One
of the top paperboard manufacturers in Europe is using the disc pump
system throughout its mill in northern Sweden. Applications include
pumping lime slurry, black liquor soap, coating waste and
lignin/white liquor. One of the toughest uses was pumping a very
abrasive and shear sensitive bentonite solution.
Since installation of the disc pumps, the
plant manager has not purchased any spare parts for these pumps, and
has reported no unplanned maintenance or downtime. The company
estimates the savings amount to SEK 50,000 to SEK 100,000
[$10,000–$20,000] per pump per year, with a return on its
investment of between six and ten months.
Case Study: Liquid
Ink Sludge
Pumping
the liquid ink sludge from the thickener plant was proving a
difficult and costly task for this Quebec-based paper mill. The
existing air-operated diaphragm pumps were continually breaking down
and the maintenance bill was huge. Based on the success of another
disc pump installation at the mill, pumping 4% density stock, a
number of disc pumps were supplied to the de-inking plant in 1992.
They are still successfully operating today.
“All the problems we had with the diaphragm pumps and with high
maintenance costs disappeared when we installed the Discflo pumps”
comments the mill’s senior engineer. “Their performance has been
astonishing.”
Case Study:
Medium-density Pulp
Disc
pumps are being used to pump a 4–7% tissue pulp directly out of
the paper machines into production. Prior to installing Discflo
units, the mill used two units to pump a 5% concentration with
entrained air and encountered frequent downtime problems.
Due to its unique boundary layer/viscous drag
concept, the disc pumps can handle the variance in pulp
concentration and entrained air without any difficulty. The problems
experienced prior to installing Discflo disc pumps have been
eliminated, and uptime is high.
Pulp
and Paper Industry
The
UK paper industry’s first Discflo pump has reduced downtime in
pumping paper stock to almost zero and has cut machine downtime by
12 hours a month, which yields savings of approximately £96,000
[$150,000] a year.
The
green liquor pump shown above has been running for over two years at
a pulp mill in Finland. That is over 1½ years longer than any other
pump used previously. The first Discflo pump has run 24 hours a day
since start up without requiring any maintenance and at a recent
inspection, showed no signs of wear.
The
clarifier sludge being pumped at this paper mill in Arkansas is 70%
sand mixed with water and salt brine. The company previously used
two self-priming centrifugal pumps to move 450 GPM of sludge from
the cooling tower.
One
of the top paperboard manufacturers in Europe is using the disc pump
system throughout its mill in northern Sweden. Applications include
pumping lime slurry, black liquor soap, coating waste and
lignin/white liquor. One of the toughest uses was pumping a very
abrasive and shear sensitive bentonite solution.
Pumping
the liquid ink sludge from the thickener plant was proving a
difficult and costly task for this Quebec-based paper mill. The
existing air-operated diaphragm pumps were continually breaking down
and the maintenance bill was huge. Based on the success of another
disc pump installation at the mill, pumping 4% density stock, a
number of disc pumps were supplied to the de-inking plant in 1992.
Disc
pumps are being used to pump a 4–7% tissue pulp directly out of
the paper machines into production. Prior to installing Discflo
units, the mill used two units to pump a 5% concentration with
entrained air and encountered frequent downtime problems.