Flygt pumps reduce maintenance costs and saves time.

Built in 1983, Northumbrian Water's Lustrum Pumping Station, located in Stockton-on-Tees, takes the combined flows from a major retail and industrial area and pumps it to the head of Portrack Wastewater Treatment Works.

ITT Water Wastewater, solutions provider within the water and wastewater treatment market, was brought in by Northumbrian Water to assess pumps which blocked at the site--providing a solution that offers considerable time and cost savings.

The station housed six 90kW vertical shaft driven, dry mounted pumps designed to produce 2,500 litres per second. Northumbrian Water staff were increasingly visiting the station to deal with blockages and non-biological solids which were getting into the system--even including two car tyres and rims.

As well as blockages and the resulting maintenance time and costs, the availability and costs of pump spares were becoming an issue.

The sales and rental departments at ITT Water Wastewater worked together with Northumbrian Water to propose a solution. The team advised the installation of two Flygt CT3400 75kW pump rental units.

The Flygt rental department is specifically suited for situations needing a quick resolution and where the 24/7 cover offered by the dedicated Flygt pump personnel is required--making it a sensible choice for the needs of Lustrum Pumping Station.

The installation required a special discharge pipe which was fabricated on site as the original pumps had an offset 450mm ID discharge connection compared to the Flygt units which are inline with a 400mm discharge. Due to the nature of the station and the waste it deals with, it was not a surprise that the channel impeller CT3400 blocked occasionally.

However, the simplicity of removing the motor from the fixed volute considerably reduced the unblocking time.

A full refurbishment of the station led to the installation of a Flygt N Pump which was chosen because of its superior solids handling capabilities.

The MAS (Monitoring and Supervision) unit was also installed, delivering cost savings to the station by detecting any abnormalities in the running of the pump using its vibration sensor and temperature monitoring systems.

This unit alerts maintenance staff to an issue and stops the pump should a large object damage the impeller, reducing costs involved because only damaged components need to be replaced rather than other items which would subsequently sustain damage if the pump ran on out of balance.

A huge benefit of the refurbishment was the installation of the Flygt N Pumps. There have been no blockages with the Flygt N Pumps, bringing increased efficiency to the station. The original pumps were delivering 0.43M3/kWh while the new N pumps deliver 0.9M3/kWh. In electrical terms alone this offers a potential saving of 22,000pa [pounds sterling] at current rates, plus, because the pumps have remained unblocked (a substantial benefit to the station), maintenance time and costs have dramatically reduced.

Contact ITT Flygt on tel [phone] or visit www.ittwww.com