Several Defining Attributes That Makes Slurry Pumps One of the Important Devices in Industries

The best illustration to describe a slurry pump is to consider a mixture of water and sand in a drinking glass. Upon rotating the glass at a considerable rate of speed what you will notice is the sand is suspended in the water.

An Overview of Pump Used in Slurry Applications

These pumps are nothing but another robust and heavy version of centrifugal pumps that are capable of handling abrasive and heavy-duty jobs. They are mainly designed for excellent performance, long wear life, low energy consumption, and above all, easy maintenance. Their main utilization is in application areas where moving mixtures of solids and liquids are highly necessary. These pumps are also used for handling and transporting abrasive and corrosive slurry in different industries like coal, mining, silver, gold, electric utilities, oil shale, sewage, sand, and water. Due to their toughness and durability, these devices are an ideal solution for heavy applications.

Basically, these are a type of water pumps that are intended for use in areas where heavy-solid materials are intentionally or accidentally suspended in the water. Slurry pumping systems have a unique design and thus, rotate water by the method of an impeller. Now depending on the nature of the application, the rotation of the pump controls particulates and in turn, prevents solids from causing corrosion or damage to other internal machinery parts in the system.

Composition

The overall mechanism of a slurry pump is very similar to the other types of pumps that are available on the market. However, what distinguishes this pump from the rest is the capacity to accommodate fluids with large particles. The design of this pumping system is quite common to what appears in the marketplace. The basic operating principles also remain the same as compared to others.

The pump is housed in a high pressure casing that is typically found in a semi-spiral shape. This casing consists of different drive devices that rotate a bearing and shaft assembly. The impellers present in the system are located along the shaft of the pump, with vanes just to help create the centrifugal force that is required to spin the slurry. However, once the drive devices are engaged into an action, it is the bearings in the system that keeps the shaft turning consistently. Meanwhile, the impeller centrifuges the slurry.

Slurry pumps are also the go-to source for heavy-duty centrifugal pumps in industry sectors like mineral processing, mine drainage, settling lagoons, pumping of drilling mud, dredging, and so on. There are many industries with a wide spectrum of applications that employ pumps handling slurry and related mediums.