Modern Quarrying Q2 2025

currents of fluid which form within the pump volute due to turbulent flow, and lead to fluid moving against the main flow, wasting energy and increasing wear on internal components. “We have also improved efficiency by minimising the surface area of the WRT impeller, by reducing the number of vanes from five to four,” he says. “This creates more space for the material to flow while still delivering the same duty.” Critical to the impact that the WRT® component upgrade has had on energy efficiency in pumping operations is its enthusiastic uptake by the market. Koorts highlights that Weir’s strategy was to make the transition for customers as easy and economical as possible. Being interchangeable with WARMAN® pumps’ older technology, the WRT® components allow customers to switch over without extra capital expenditure – by changing to WRT® options when existing parts need to be replaced. “This has already allowed most of our customer base to adopt the latest energy-efficient options,” he says. “In Africa, for instance, all new WARMAN AH pumps sold contain WRT technology and a majority of our existing WARMAN AH pumps have already been converted.” With Africa being home to a large installed base of ENVIROTECH® pumps, the WRT® component technology has been extended to this popular range. Koorts notes that the company is committed to Africa and to the technologies currently in use. “For the past two years, therefore, we have been

Engineers at Weir work on designing components before moving to physical testing in the field.

supplying our ENVIROTECH pumps with WRT as standard,” he says. “Today, more than half of all our ENVIROTECH pump spares sales are WRT designs.” Underpinning these technical advancements is Weir’s local investment in production capacity, which allows the company to cast and machine its pumps and components in South Africa. l

27

MODERN QUARRYING QUARTER 2 | 2025