Maximum Life.
Sustained Efficiency.
Reduced Costs
Slurrytech Ceramax
parts are manufactured from Silicon Carbide
(NSC) and are
characterized by excellent wear properties, good
chemical resistance, good temperature
and
impact resistance.
NSC allows us to offer
our clients pump components as a
monolithic casting for surface
uniformity and reduced turbulence.
Slurrytech
NSC
parts
offer an excellent combination of
toughness and hardness that is required
in solids and slurry pumping
applications. A ceramic without this
combination will fail prematurely under
fracture fatigue or general erosion.
Wear Life
Pump wear and parts life are influenced by many factors
such as material grade, mineral properties, flow and
pressure patterns, pump geometry, particle velocity,
solids concentration and solids size distribution are
amongst some of these factors, Many books have been
written by many people trying to explain these "complex"
interactions.
Regardless of this
vast knowledge and understanding that exists today we have seen only
marginal benefits to parts life made in the field.
The
true reason for this is because actually resolving wear
issues in the field is more complex than just writing a
paper, a thesis or a book around an area of understanding.
To
truly resolve pump wear you need not only the technical
expertise in fluid mechanics but also a thorough
understanding of material sciences, maintenance
practices, equipment design, plant design and processing
complexities and probably the most important is field
application experience. At
Slurrytech we have a very broad technical expertise, but
we also have the real world field experience.
Harnessing
our expertise and field experience together we have designed our Ceramax range of
pump components.
Our
group focus has been to develop parts in materials and
designs that actively reduce the effects of solids
interaction and impact on the
pump life, and we can proudly state that we have
succeeded!
The
jewel in our crown is the Ceramax range of slurry pump
parts. Never before has their been a cost effective
range of parts in a material grade and design that can
extend wear life by a factor of up to 20 times and
better, whilst at the same time enhancing safety for
both maintenance and operations staff.
These are not just bold words or unsubstantiated claims,
these are real world results from multiple sites under
varying duty conditions. Listed following are a few
samples of what our Ceramax parts have been able to
achieve.
Hard Rock Miner - Pumping a
coarse solid to 3mm particle size with Mohs hardness
of 9 and 35% c/w through a 4/3 pump.
Original impeller life 3 to 4 weeks
for OEM R55 rubber, U27 poly, U60 poly, A61 alloy.
Slurrytech impeller life consistent
16 to 20 weeks in NSC Silicon Carbide.
Mineral Sands Plants - Pump a
variety of slurries through various pump sizes.
Worst case 7 to 10 days life
on a 3/2 pump fitted with R55 rubber, U27 poly or
alloy parts.
Slurrytech Ceramax parts have been in
service for 20 weeks = 140 days and on last
inspection were estimated to have between 8 to 10%
wear.
Coal Washer - Coarse reject
duty to 6mm for a 6/4 pump size.
OEM parts life of 10 to 12 weeks on
Cr27 high chrome alloy.
Slurrytech parts installed for over
24 weeks with only 5% wear on last inspection.
Ceramax parts offer
exceptional life benefits over traditional materials
used in slurry pump applications.
The table below shows
how to estimate the Wear Life Benefit achievable through use of
our advanced materials technology.
Cost Analysis link
(at bottom of page) will take
you to an Excel based version of Parts Cost Analysis
which contains a copy of the Wear Life Factor worksheet.
Result Images
The following
images show new and worn impeller condition for coarse
3mm high hardness solid duty.
Worth noting is
that although the alloy impeller is worn to failure it
generally has more structure left compared to the
Ceramax impeller. This is due to the localisation of
wear that occurs in alloy and elastomer parts.
In alloy impellers
localised holing leads to flow bypass to low pressure
regions with subsequent efficiency and performance loss
and an acceleration of wear due to irregular flow
streams. Given another week in duty the alloy impeller
would suffer from further failure due to shroud
shearing, this generally happens when the front shroud
separates from the rear due to completely worn through
vanes.
For elastomer
impellers the results are worse as the primary shielding
material is stripped from the mild steel reinforcing.
This can lead to bonding breakdown of the elastomer and
alloy. Complete part failure usually occurs relatively
quickly once the part is holed through to the
reinforcing.
The Ceramax
impeller due to it's design and unique material
properties is able is spread the wear load over a larger
area and does not suffer from localised failure until an
extended wear life has been achieved. By doing this the
impeller is better able to sustain it's performance and
efficiency over time. Like the alloy impeller if left in
duty for another 2 weeks this impeller would likely fail
due to shroud shearing.
The distinction in
failure between the alloy and Ceramax impeller is that
the Ceramax impeller has better maintained it's geometry
over a significantly extended time frame.
This result has
been on a coarse solids application for which most
ceramics are not normally recommended, however as
demonstrated the Ceramax material can withstand these
difficult application conditions extremely well. On
finer particle slurries the results of the Ceramax part
success are even more pronounced.
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New 4/3 Impeller
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New 4/3 Impeller
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New Ceramic Impeller
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New 4/3 parts
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Worn Ceramc. Life x 6
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Worn Ceramc. Life x 6
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Worn Ceramc. Life x 6
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Worn Ceramc. Life x 6
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Worn Ceramc. Life x 6
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Worn Ceramc. Life x 6
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Worn Ceramc. Life x 6
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Worn Ceramc. Life x 6
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Worn Ceramc. Life x 6
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Worn Alloy. Life x 1
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Worn Alloy. Life x 1
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Worn Alloy. Life x 1
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From the 100's of parts supplied to clients in the last
18 months the only parts that have been replaced to date
are ones shown above with a 16 week life cycle. All
other installs remain operational with the best case
result being 18 month with 5% wear.
Cost Effectiveness
Ceramax parts are exceptionally cost effect
against OEM elastomer and alloy parts. Also against Sintered, Siliconised and Alumina Oxide competitor products.
A typical cost analysis for correct
application will see between 2 to 20
times wear life at approx. 1/2 the life
cycle cost of OEM product.
Further Information Links
Cost Analysis Link
- Typical analysis of potential cost savings through use
of Ceramax parts.
