Moving all kinds of water, wherever necessary and in any quantity, but without using electricity is a key challenge in the world today.
This is the challenge that the UK company PAPA LTD https://www.waterpoweredtechnologies.com decided to accept by introducing into the market place a new line of Venturi valve pumps capable of moving up to 20,000 liters of water per day, without interruption and low cost maintenance.
Based on their technical capability and knowledge of historical metal pump production, PAPA further reviewed the overall objectives with the design of a much lighter, more practical and cost-efficient range of pumps, ensuring performance comparable to traditional models in steel and bronze with a minimum inlet flow rate of less than 10 litres per minute.
The new range of PAPA pumps are also designed for use in particularly stringent applications such as agriculture, for pumping polluted water in cases of emergencies such as flooding and in addition for the efficient management of water storage.
Overall the pump is required to operate even in the presence of very dirty and contaminated water containing debris such as sand and small particulates.
In addition to these difficult working conditions it must be extremely reliable, and the PAPA pumps need to contribute very quickly at very low running costs, so ease of transport and assembly is essential to the overall cost equation.
The combination of cost-efficiency and ease of use allows the pumps access to interesting but complex markets, such as in developing countries, where the need for water is associated with heavy use conditions.
In order to develop a really innovative product meeting the project requirements, PAPA LTD decided to abandon the use of metal and adopt instead a polymer compound route not only ensuring robustness and lightweight, but also a low environmental impact in line with the company's deeply green aspirations.
PAPA’s engineers focused their attention on LATIGLOSS 66 H2 G/50 F2 after rejecting also the option of using thermoset materials and compounds, which are robust but non-recyclable, and thus environmentally unfriendly.
Manufactured on a Nylon PA66 matrix with 50% glass fibre reinforcement, LATI’s injection moulding compound is formulated so as to ensure excellent mechanical performance combined with an unrivalled lightweight advantage over metals, thanks to a density (1.57 g/cm3) that is less than one fifth that of steel and almost half that of aluminum!
From a structural point of view, it should be considered that the pressure inside a pump exploiting the high hydraulic pressure effect of water can reach very high levels, but thanks to the stress at break of LATIGLOSS, which exceeds 2000 kg/cm2, all final testing and field tests were successfully passed.
The use of such a high performance compound was necessary to prevent failures due not only to the internal pressure of the pump assembly, but also the possible mishandling of the pump during assembly and operation.
Considering that it could be used in various locations such as mines, fields crossed by tractors, on farms etc. inherent strength must be also associated with excellent resilience, which is obtained by combining glass fibers with specially selected thermoplastic matrices capable of gaining impact resistance thanks to the natural affinity of polyamide with ambient humidity.
The pump reliability has to be guaranteed even in the management of polluted waters such as those in urban streams, industrial reservoirs or drains, and floodplains. In these cases, the polymer matrix based on polyamide 66 ensures maximum inertia towards organic contaminants of all kinds: hydrocarbons, oils and solvents, but also sewage and other inorganic agents.
It should be pointed out that LATIGLOSS 66 H2 G/50 F2 is also designed for the transport of cold and warm drinking water, as recognized by all major certification bodies. In fact, certifications of suitability for contact with drinking water issued by KTW, NSF, ACS, and WRAS can be found on LATI’s website (www.lati.com). The choice of a polymer compound represents a further step forward in the protection of human health, because, unlike brass, for example, LATIGLOSS does not release any harmful metallic pollutants such as lead, zinc, or copper into the environment.