Weir Minerals has made three new additions to its Lewis® range of pumps and valves for the sulphur, sulphuric and phosphoric acid industries.
The release of the Lewis VL Axial Pump, Lewis Horizontal Process Pump and Lewis Vertical High Pressure Molten Salt Pump marks a new chapter in the brand’s history of innovative product and material engineering, it said.
The three pumps have been designed to maximise wear life in some of the world’s most corrosive industrial applications while simplifying maintenance through their streamlined designs, according to Weir. This has significantly reduced the number of parts compared with previous pumps, without compromising their performance, it says.
Jerry Ernsky, Lewis Product Manager, Weir Minerals, said: “Although they’re designed to address different challenges, these three new pumps were guided by the same core design principles: using advances in material technology to achieve increased performance and wear life, while reducing complexity to simplify equipment maintenance and give us the flexibility to deliver more engineered to order features that benefit our customers.
“Fundamentally, Weir Minerals is in the business of solving tenacious problems that interfere with our customers’ operations, which is why every step of our product development is guided by our customers’ key challenges.”
The new Lewis horizontal process pump combines the long-lasting corrosion and wear resistance of Lewmet® alloys with the robust performance, efficiency and ease of maintenance associated with centrifugal pumps, Weir said.
“This single stage, end suction horizontal process pump is the product of years of experience and research, which perfectly complements the existing range of Lewis vertical acid pumps and valves,” the company added.
According to Ernsky, the pump is suitable for a wide variety of chemical processing applications, offering efficient performance and superior wear resistance to the growing number of acid plants and fertiliser complexes operating around the world.
“Our engineered to order horizontal pumps are customised to support our customers’ goals of reducing plant maintenance and achieving a lower total cost of ownership,” he said.
The new Lewis VL Axial Flow Pump offers heavy duty construction ideal for use in corrosive, high temperature chemical processing applications, such as evaporator and crystalliser circulation, according to Weir. Its design is highly flexible and can be customised to suit a wide variety of industrial applications, while its low component count makes servicing quicker and easier, the company said.
The Lewis Vertical High Pressure Molten Salt Pump has been designed to meet the needs of the burgeoning concentrated solar power industry, Weir said. This multi-stage vertical turbine pump can handle the multifaceted challenges that come with the extremely high pressures and temperatures associated with pumping molten salt for thermal energy storage, according to the company.
