Big pumping for Pioneer Pump
Pioneer Pump showed their largest ever pumps at Hillhead 2012, including those powered by Caterpillar 18-litre (600hp) and 15-litre (475hp) engines which are currently in high demand for mines and quarries requiring larger pump units.
Based on their modular design concept, Pioneer have designed a single-skid unit capable of accepting Cat engines from 300hp to 6,000hp. This allows the pump supplier to offer a multitude of fluid ends with heads up to 700ft and flows that exceed 5,000 gals/min, for use in a variety of quarrying applications, such as dewatering, aggregate wash plants and flood control.
According to Pioneer, their pumps, which use the latest Tier IIIB engines and the company’s renowned high-efficiency pump ends, offer quarry operators the lowest fuel burn per gallon of water pumped of any global manufacturer.
All Pioneer pumps are designed to operate close to ‘best efficiency point’ at around 1,800 rev/min. This maps the latest electronic engine fuel burn curve, which is also optimized at 1,800 rev/min. As a result, although the engine power flat lines at 1,800 rev/min, Pioneer can match the pump’s maximum efficiency and performance at this speed, effectively pumping more water, using less litres per kilowatt of energy and reducing the fuel consumption of the engines.
Simon Ruffles, managing director of Pioneer Pump, commented: ‘Some of our competitors’ pumps can only achieve high flows and heads running at over 2,000 rev/min in which fuel burn can be 20% higher per kilowatt than at 1,800 rev/min. This means not only are the quarries likely to experience higher wear rates on the pump, but also significantly higher fuel costs.’
Among Pioneer’s fully packaged quarry dewatering pumpsets on show at Hillhead earlier this year was the newly upgraded 150SM open-trailer set aimed at the Africa and Middle East markets.
Driven by a Tier II (non-electronic) Deutz F4L912 engine and built with a heavy-duty GGG40 ductile iron casing and CA6NM stainless steel impeller, the new design complements a wide range of other higher-performance dewatering Pioneer pumps.
These include: skid-mounted heavy-duty pumpsets featuring ‘Rock & Rain’ designs; 9-, 15- and 18-litre Cat engines; eco-friendly, sound-attenuated canopied sets with Perkins engines; and improved specifications for better hydraulic performance and lower running costs.
Tom Nicholson, UK and Ireland sales manager for Pioneer Pump, commented: ‘Since employing two new area managers for the UK and Ireland, we are now ready to take on the quarrying market. We designed these high-performance pumpsets for the global mining industry where heavy-duty equipment is required to maintain mine water levels. But with the recent heavy rainfall across much of the UK, more and more quarry operators are also looking for pumpsets that rapidly increase their flows without the need to bring in extra pumps.’
