Amarinth builds specialist industrial pump testing facility 23 June 2011

Centrifugal pumps specialist Amarinth has completed its new test facility, providing additional capacity.

Oliver Brigginshaw, managing director of Amarinth, says that, with a full order book last year, Amarinth embarked on what has been a major investment to enable the company to meet anticipated demand.

A new building at the Rendlesham site now houses the new facility, providing a significant increase in throughput and also exceeding health and safety standards, which ensures pumps are not damaged during tests.

The new test rig has multiple connections to a main test tank, which can cope with flows of up to 1650m3/hr. Pumps can now be prepared for test or disassembled after tests while another pump undergoes testing – so saving hours of idle test time.

Testing is also now fully automated, with electronic valve actuators enabling the whole rig to be controlled via a single push button at the master test desk. All test telemetry is captured electronically using digital test instrumentation.

Brigginshaw points out that large vertical pumps provide the biggest testing challenge for most manufactures. Amarinth has, however. constructed two 5m deep sumps, allowing for full length testing of vertical sump pumps up to 7m.

A hydraulic system also lowers pumps into position at the push of a button, obviating the requirement for cranes and ensuring that jobs can be completed with greater safety by one operator.

And, with the use of web video cameras on the test rigs, witness testing can now be carried out without the inspector or the customer travelling to the factory. Video witnessing of pump testing is now being allowed under the latest issue of the API 610 standard (ISO13709).

"We can now test all of the units going through the factory without having to extend any of our delivery times, ensuring that we can undertake an increased number of prestigious contracts, particularly those with tight deadlines," comments Brigginshaw.

Brian Tinham

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