MechChem Africa March 2017

SAM Engineering, the manufacturer of SAMCO pumps in SouthAfrica, delivers a variety of chemical and corrosion-resistant pumps that are custom-made to suit the harsh conditions of the minerals processing, mining and petrochemical industries as well as the demands of process applications involving, food, chemicals, pulp and paper and fertiliser. MechChem Africa talks to Danny Lubbe, the company’s sales manager. Specialist alloys and custom

S AM Engineering’s history dates back tothe1970s,toacompanycalledSan- dock Austral, which had the license to locally manufacture Allis Chalm- ers pumps. “But in the 70s, Sandock Austral withdrew fromSouthAfrica, leading to a buy- out by the local manufacturing director, who bought the casting patterns and secured the rights to continue tomanufacture the pumps here in South Africa,” Lubbe begins. “When ITT purchased Allis Chalmers, the licensing agreement was extended, but ITT soon acquired the Gould pumps brand instead, leaving the Allis Chalmers installed base across Africa unsupported. So the SAMCO pump brand was born,” he relates. Over the years, notable changes were made to suit the harsh local requirements. “We addedwear plates to the designs, for ex- ample, so that thepumps couldbe refurbished more often and more economically, giving thema longer life and reducing theownership costs,” he explains.

Mostnotably,though,theSAMEngineering name is an acronym of ‘Specialist Alloy Manufacturer’, which reflects a deliberate strategy to be as flexible as possible when it comes to alloy choices andmaterial combina- tion for the SAMCO pump range. “Ourmotto is ‘customisedpump solutions’ and we live up to that motto by manufactur- ing our impellers, volutes, wear plates and bearing frames in the material or alloy that best suits the actual application,” Lubbenotes, adding: “We can offer any combination of 11 standard alloys and we have complete flexibility with respect to novel materials of manufacture. “We were the first company to agree to manufacture skids, bearing frames and the power-end of our pumps fromstainless steel. This is abigno-no fromglobalOEMs, whichall tend to standardise on their frame materials. Very fewwill agree to custommanufacturing,” Lubbe suggests. “Up in places such as the Copper Belt,

the conditions are often terribly harsh and pumps fail regularly. By supplying stainless steel frames and customised wet-end alloys, our pumps are far better protected, so they last longer and aremore reliable,” he explains. “Our wet-ends are manufactured in all kinds of materials: CD-4 wear plates, a wear- and corrosion-resistant duplex alloy; impellers and volutes frommaterials such as 316, duplex and super duplex stainless steels; or Alloy 20, a nickel-chromium-molybdenum alloy that is ideal for sulphuric acid applica- tions. We strive to offer the highest corro- sion resistance possible for the media being pumped,” Lubbe advises. Long serving SAM Engineering clients include customers such as Tongaat on the food side and SAPPI, for pulp and paper. “For pumping pulp and liquids with solid content, weuseopen impellers. Thesehaveno shrouds on the inlet side so that solids can be easily dischargedwithout clogging thepump,” Lubbe tells MechChem Africa .

SAMCO CP and CPO chemical process pumps are “our stock in trade”. SAM Engineering can manufacture these in 34 different model sizes with 11 different material combinations.

8 ¦ MechChem Africa • March 2017