MechChem Africa March 2017

⎪ Pump systems, pipes, valves and seals ⎪

Pump and Abrasion Technologies have developed a new Curve™ slurry pump, which, according to managing director, Jaco Buitendag, “is the first step towards our goal of becoming a first choice provider of slurry pump solutions across Africa”. New Curve slurry pumps

“ W ith our newly launched Curve™ range of slurry pumps, Pump and Abra- sion Technologies (PAT) has proved that we possess the know-how and the infrastructure to deliver first class slurry solutions and excellent service,” says Buitendag. “One of our main goals in developing the Curve™ was to offer customer-tailored solu- tions. Every aspect of the pump’s design is based on feedback from clients across the continent, sowe feel that this is currently the onlypumpon themarket toaddress everyone of their operational needs,” he explains. “We successfully launched the Curve into the South African market at Electra Mining andtotheworldattheInternationalMINExpo heldinLasVegas.Wenowfeelthatwearewell onourway tobecoming renownedworldwide as the leader in the design, manufacture and application of heavy duty slurry pumps.” Buitendag goes on to say that by establish- ing an extensive network of sales and service ‘hubs’ throughout Africa in order to provide efficient client service, “we are committed to being a trusted global partner”. The Curve pump was three years in the making and emerged from a clean sheet ap- proach. The range offers decreased energy consumption throughout the product life cy- cle, TOCreduction, longerwear life, increased efficiency and improved safety for personnel during both installation and maintenance. Buitendag contends that the slurry pump- ing industry was overdue for the launch of a cutting-edge pumping product saying that no significant advancements had been made to products on the market for almost 50 years. “With the rateof technological advancements happening in themining industry, we felt that a new slurry pumping product was desper- ately needed.We proceeded to allocate a sig- nificantportionofourdevelopmentresources tocollectingcustomerfeedbackandpackaged this into what we feel represents the new

generation in slurry pumps,” says Buitendag. “The end result is a benefit-saturated product that enablesPAT tostrength- en our clients’ operations.” In designing the Curve, PAT’s expert design and engineering team relooked at the traditional internal hy- draulic layouts found in most slurry pumps. Leaning on their knowledge of what the market requires, they created an innovative

design that was applied to the specific geo- metric size and the exact profiles of hydraulic passage through the pump. “When plotting the specific geometric size against total lifecycle cost there is a point where capital and operational costs achieve a combined optimum. Every model in the Curve range is sized to hit this optimum and deliver the lowest ownership cost to the end-user,” Buitendag explains. Knowingthatcostisalwaysakeyfactorfor mining operations, PAT’s designers ensured that lowenergy consumptionwas prioritised indesign and that theCurve couldbe retrofit- ted to legacy pumping systems with minimal changes to existing piping. “We are extremely proud of the product thatwehavebeen able tobring to themarket. The innovative advancements we havemade are a result of the combined capabilities of our entire team. Thanks to their expertise, we now have a slurry pump that offers a reduc- tion in downtime by up to 80%, a 40-60% re- duction in total ownership costs and – thanks toour strategicdistribution–shorter delivery lead time,” Buitendag says. Pump and Abrasion Technologies is a manufacturer and supplier of heavy-duty pump solutions to the mining, mineral pro- cessing, industrial and agricultural segments with ISO 9001 accreditation. The company has developed a range of premium quality pumpsandafter-marketpumpspares,offered

The Curve S Model from Pump and Abrasion Technologies. at competitive prices and comprehensive ongoing service. The company is based inCenturion, South Africa but its’ operational footprint extends to Botswana, Ghana, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and other African territories. q

Pump and Abrasion Technologies (PAT) unveils its Curve™ product range to the African market at Electra Mining 2016.

March 2017 • MechChem Africa ¦ 17