720114Amarinth - a new rapid prototyping production technique for centrifugal pumps culminating in the production of a bespoke pump for the sulphur production industryClosedGRD Development of PrototypeInnovate UKVertical and horizontal centrifugal pumps are used throughout industry and users are often forced to select a best fit pump for a given application from a standard range of pumps from suppliers. As many as 50% of pumps do not then run at their Best Efficiency Point and energy inefficiencies of 25% are common. In an ideal world the impellor and casing of a pump would be designed and manufactured to each specific pump application. The pumping of liquid sulphur in the petro-chemical industry is a particularly aggressive environment requiring high reliability and robustness. Energy efficiency is now being demanded. Project has two key objectives, firstly the development of a design and production process to enable the most advanced and efficient bespoke centrifugal pumps to be designed & produced in shorter lead times and at less cost to end users. Secondly this technology will be applied to create a prototype centrifugal pump for application into the sulphur production market with high efficiency, high maintainability and high reliability. Amarinth will then use the design and rapid tooling techniques in many of their other pump applications and use it as a key differentiator from their competition and further their brand image of delivering highly reliable pumps in short leadtimes. Main benefits are focused on the two project areas. Being able to manufacture pumps designed to operate at their Best Efficiency Point can offer endusers 10 – 25% energy savings and when 95% of pump life cycle costs are energy costs, this represents a huge saving. Less energy usage means CO2 savings. Successful development of the sulphur pump will ensure plant runs more efficiently and reliably. If the plant experiences an emergency shutdown & the sulphur solidifies, the pump design allows rapid reinstatement & repair which has economic and health and safety advantages. UK pump fleet energy savings of 875GWH/year could be expected with 25% market penetration. Amarinth has a target of 5%.