MechChem Africa March 2017

⎪ Pump systems, pipes, valves and seals ⎪

pumping solutions

Above: One of a batch of SAMCO HM 316 stainless steel pumps awaiting delivery. Originally developed for light slurries, these pumps have also been adapted for use in chemical process applications. Above right: A SAMCO pump in the final stages of assembly in the company’s Boksburg premises. Right: Components such as impellers, volutes, wear plates and bearing frames are all locally manufactured in the material or alloy that best suits the actual application. Stainless costs? “In comparison to operat- ing costs, the capital costs of pumps on these plants are relatively small. So they are often seen as consumable items. Our pumps offer much better uptime and longer life, so they cost the plant much less over time. “We can also reuse a stainless bearing frame and volute casing several times over. We use a spacer coupling between the pump and themotor. Once the coupling is removed, the pump shaft, impeller, seals and wear plates can be pulled out without affecting the motor alignment. The bearings, seals, impeller, wear plates and bushes can then be replaced before refitting and re-coupling the refurbished pump to the motor,” he says add- ing: “this is known in the industry as a ‘back pull-out design’. “So if a pump needs a refurbishment in NorthernZambiaor theDRC, for example, we can simply send up the appropriate SAMCO wet-end kit and the local pump fitters can do the rest,” he says. “Over the past 30 years, SAMEngineering has soldover 20000pumpunits into industry and our current SAMCO range comprises 13 different models, 137 different sizes in 11 different iron, steel and alloy material com- binations,” Lubbe notes. SAMCO Pumps can produce up to 5 000 m 3 /h of flow and maximum heads of up to200mandthebiggestthecompanyhasever

manufactured is driven by an 800 kWmotor. “All our pumps are made to order. Depending on the alloys chosen, we quote four to six week delivery times for readily available combinations, but thismight stretch to 14 weeks if the materials, alloys and heat treatments are more difficult,” he notes. Froma localisationperspective, all casting, machining, inspection, assembly and painting tasks are completed locally,” Lubbe says. Current successes? “Our stock in trade is process pumps for food processing, pulp and paper, minerals processing and fertiliser industries. But it is our business in the cop- per/cobalt processing industry north of our borders that is very strong at the moment,” Lubbe responds. “Acids are widely used in copper process- ing to reduce ores from the mines: in the solvent extraction plants; to break down the waste through the leaching process; and in the electro winning process itself, which

produces the copper sheeting,” he explains. To improve the efficiency of the copper extraction process, the pregnant liquor solu- tionispumpedfromtheheapleachingprocess to the solvents extraction and electrowinning plant, where copper cathodes are formed and the spent liquor is pumped back to the heap for further refining. “Currently, this business is keeping us going – and the copper price indications are looking positive, so things are looking up for us,” he says. “Any pumps purchased from SAM Engineering or SAMCO Pumps, no matter which original brand name is on the name plate, canbe serviced, refurbishedor replaced with parts currently manufactured by SAM Engineering,”Lubbeconcludes.“Standardising on the SAMCOPumpbrand avoids incompat- ibility issues and reduces the risks of spares or pump models becoming unsupported in the future.” q

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