UGS supply pressure pipelines to Imerys
A high-profile slurry pipeline scheme was completed last year at one of Imerys’s china clay pits in Cornwall. A particular consideration of the project was the consistency of the slurry, which is prone to solidify if the pressure is insufficient to pump it around, making the pipeline unusable and leading to potential cost implications through loss of production as well as the risk of environmental impact and plant replacement.
Imerys work the deposit from a large benched pit that provides access to a variety of production faces to allow different clays to be blended. After washing the kaolinized granite with a high-pressure water monitor, the resulting mixture of water, china clay, sand and mica forms a slurry and flows to the lowest point of the pit. From here the slurry is pumped to bucket wheels to remove the coarse sand, while the mica particles are removed by means of hydrocyclones and the liquid waste pumped to a mica dam where it settles, the excess water being reused in the production process. Meanwhile, approximately 2,425m3 per week of clay slurry is pumped to a refinery for processing.
UGS worked very closely with Imerys to provide an engineering solution that included sourcing pipeline materials from Egeplast in Germany and manufacturing them to UK water industry standards. Imerys had specified a pipeline with a SDR7.4 wall thickness – an uncommon requirement in the UK but one that is more widely used in mainland Europe. The 4.3km pipeline was built to withstand a working pressure of 24 bar (maximum) and a velocity of 1.27m/s, with a product density of 1.3–1.4 and static head of 74m.
‘The delivery schedule was like that of a military exercise and executed with the same amount of precision,’ commented Imerys’s senior engineer and project manager, Kevin Penhallurick. ‘UGS lorries would call me an hour before they were due so that we were on hand to direct the transport to key drop-off points around the site.’
UGS’s national utilities manager, John Biela, added: ‘The specialized field of pressure pipeline systems demands in-depth knowledge and experience. We are committed to value engineering and supplying fully approved materials in the most cost-effective form. Our strong trading relationships with manufacturers ensure that companies such as Imerys receive the most up-to-date information about new products and innovations, allowing us to offer them the most competitive range of cutting-edge materials and services.’
UGS Ltd, Pipe Lane, Southam Road, Banbury, Oxon OX16 2RP; tel: (01295) 672000; fax: (01295) 672000; email: banbury@ugs.uk.com; website: www.ugs.uk.com
Imerys work the deposit from a large benched pit that provides access to a variety of production faces to allow different clays to be blended. After washing the kaolinized granite with a high-pressure water monitor, the resulting mixture of water, china clay, sand and mica forms a slurry and flows to the lowest point of the pit. From here the slurry is pumped to bucket wheels to remove the coarse sand, while the mica particles are removed by means of hydrocyclones and the liquid waste pumped to a mica dam where it settles, the excess water being reused in the production process. Meanwhile, approximately 2,425m3 per week of clay slurry is pumped to a refinery for processing.
UGS worked very closely with Imerys to provide an engineering solution that included sourcing pipeline materials from Egeplast in Germany and manufacturing them to UK water industry standards. Imerys had specified a pipeline with a SDR7.4 wall thickness – an uncommon requirement in the UK but one that is more widely used in mainland Europe. The 4.3km pipeline was built to withstand a working pressure of 24 bar (maximum) and a velocity of 1.27m/s, with a product density of 1.3–1.4 and static head of 74m.
‘The delivery schedule was like that of a military exercise and executed with the same amount of precision,’ commented Imerys’s senior engineer and project manager, Kevin Penhallurick. ‘UGS lorries would call me an hour before they were due so that we were on hand to direct the transport to key drop-off points around the site.’
UGS’s national utilities manager, John Biela, added: ‘The specialized field of pressure pipeline systems demands in-depth knowledge and experience. We are committed to value engineering and supplying fully approved materials in the most cost-effective form. Our strong trading relationships with manufacturers ensure that companies such as Imerys receive the most up-to-date information about new products and innovations, allowing us to offer them the most competitive range of cutting-edge materials and services.’
UGS Ltd, Pipe Lane, Southam Road, Banbury, Oxon OX16 2RP; tel: (01295) 672000; fax: (01295) 672000; email: banbury@ugs.uk.com; website: www.ugs.uk.com
