⎪ Cover story ⎪ Innovative Pumps at the heart of Africa MechChem Africa visits the Wadeville manufacturing facilities of APE Pumps and talks to Richard Harper and Norman Kroukamp about the refurbishment of concrete volute pumps at and the company’s growing reach in Africa.

he work we recently completed for the Lethabo Power Station “ in the Free State has been very Texciting for us,” begins Harper. “This involved the removal of all six of our CW concrete volute vertical end-suction pumps Above: An APE 1200 MF vertical turbine from the pump well, the replacement and pump. fitting of new wear rings onto the concrete volute floor and the inspection, repair and Left: A row of recently completed split- case pumps at APE Pumps’ Wadeville reassembly of the pumps at our Wadeville manufacturing facility. facility,” he adds. “These APE pumps were initially installed in the white metal bearing and back in 1981 to supply cooling water to the thrust assemblies, so these two water towers that cool Lethabo’s boiler were stripped down in our feed water – and this is their first refurbish- factory and refurbished. The An APE split-case pump for bulk water ment. We are also the pump supplier for journal and thrust-bearing transport. Right: One of the six APE CW the cooling towers at Arnot, Kriel, Duvha, pads were all re-polished, concrete volute vertical end-suction pumps on its way back to the Lethabo Grootvlei, Hendrina and Komati Power reassembled and then we Power Station in the Free State. Stations,” continues Kroukamp. These power took the pump assemblies back stations typically have two cooling towers “We hold the to site and dropped them into the we inherited an API 610 high-pressure pump each serviced by six 1.6 m diameter CW licenses, pat- volutes. range for the petrochemical industry, which pumps installed in a ring in a flooded well,” terns and draw- “Having started the work during December gave us a foothold into local companies such Harper says. ing to enable us of 2017, we were finished by April 2018, well as PetroSA and ,” he notes. “We cur- Describing the role of the pumps, to manufacture before the end of the official half-shutdown at rently offer API 610 8th edition versions of Kroukamp says that once the steam pro- these locally from scratch, and if required, we Lethabo. All the pumps are now installed and these pumps and we are currently working duced by the power stations boiler had also have the capability to make engineering running efficiently to specifications and we on modifying these designs to comply with the passed though the turbines, it needs to be design and pattern changes prior to casting,” are now finalising work on the power station’s 10th edition of the API 610 standard,” he adds. condensed and cooled. At these power sta- says Harper. spare unit,” says Kroukamp. In recent years, however, APE Pumps has tions, this is done by passing the hot boiler At Lethabo, the plant operators were Harper continues: “Previously, we manu- become part of the India-based WPIL pump feed water through heat exchangers in a wet becoming a little concerned about falling factured three replacement impellers for group, which has its roots as Worthington cooling tower. “Using our CW pumps, cooling efficiency and initially decided to remove Kriel and we are currently replacing Arnot Pumps India. “WPIL now owns APE Pumps, water is pumped into the tower and sprayed and replace all six of the wear rings from impellers that experienced cavitation caused Mather+Platt, PSV Zambia and also includes onto the heat exchangers from above. When one of the towers’ pump well. “The clearance by running them in an inadequately flooded Gruppo Aturia and Rutschi pumps, both from it comes into contact with the hot fins of the between the impeller and wear ring embed- well with reduced suction pressure (NPSH). Europe, which means that we can offer over If required, APE Pumps also has the capability to make engineering design and pattern changes prior to casting. heat exchanger below, this water evaporates, ded in the concrete volute had increased to “We have also completed similar refur- 250 pump products, including clearwater and extracting the heat from the boiler feed wa- between 6.0 and 8.0 mm. The greater gap bishments for Camden, Hendrina, Duvha, slurry pumps, single stage and horizontally with the lowest possible cost of ownership to Other project successes include: stainless ter,” Kroukamp explains. was allowing increased recirculation inside Komati and Grootvlei, and we are currently multistage and split-case pumps, API 610 meet the specific needs of client applications. steel grade 5A super-duplex pumps supplied The cooling water required is pumped the pump, reducing the hydraulic efficiency. actively involved with Kriel power station,” petro chemical pumps, Viking gear pumps “Our aim is to significantly increase our to an abalone farm in Gansbaai; and the from a process water dam into a circular So a 2.5 mm gap had to be restored to get the he says, adding that work on pumps for the for viscous substances such as peanut butter, penetration into Africa and the Middle East. turnkey high-pressure pumping solution well containing a ring of six concrete volume pumps running to the OEM design spec again,” second Lethabo cooling tower is planned for grade 5A stainless steel super duplex pumps Notable references already include the supply supplied to the Blantyre Water Board in pumps. “The cooling towers use huge amounts Kroukamp explains. the 2019 shutdown. for seawater and chlorine applications, and and spares contracts for the biggest pumps we Malawi, which is pumping drinking water of water so at any time at least four of these “For the repair, the well was drained by many more,” Harper notes. have ever built locally, the 1200 MF vertical from the water treatment plant 26 km into pumps will be in operation, each supplying up , who also removed the motors. Using Enhancing APE’s reach in Africa turbine APE pump, which we supplied to a distribution centre reservoirs and then a to 7 350 ℓ/s of water at a pressure of 116 kPa, the permanently installed crane, the rotating APE Pumps is now 66 years old, having start- The future is here client in the Middle East for desalination. The further 13 km into Blantyre,” Harper tells with two additional pumps installed for redun- assemblies were then removed and inspected ed out as a Dowson and Dobson company and To cope with the complexity involved in se- supply was supported by an America-based MechChem Africa. dancy, ready to be switched on in the event at our Wadeville facility. Then the wear rings the local supplier for Amalgamated Power lecting suitable pump from this vast range, project management company and included “We believe our innovative design and of a failure,” he tells MechChem Africa, add- in the volute were all removed and replaced. Engineering from Bedford in the UK. “We are APE Pumps is currently setting up a web- the motor sets – 1 300 kW, 420 rpm, 14 pole manufacturing capabilities place us at the ing that the pumps run at 216 rpm, drawing “The four pump assemblies in the best well known for our 6- to 42-inch vertical tur- based pump selection program to help se- electric motors. heart of Africa, with turnkey solutions for 1.875 MW (2 515 hp) of power from a 6.6 kV conditions were simply inspected and reas- bine range, but our roots also include multi­ lected clients to identify best-suited options The combination of the two systems was mining, water and wastewater facilities, electrical supply. sembled. After 37 years of service, these were stage high lift pumps and split-case pumps for in the fastest possible time. “This program will 20 m in total length, weighed more than 36 t, power generation, and for Africa’s burgeon- The original design used in this applica- still in excellent condition,” Kroukamp notes. bulk water transport,” notes Harper. soon be available to selected clients to enable and delivered at a duty of 3 800 ℓ/s into a ing oil and gas and petrochemical industries,” tion came from Allen Gwynne in the UK. “The other two showed signs of deterioration “Then, due to a buy-out of Byron Jackson, us to supply and manufacture efficient pumps 20 m head. Harper concludes. q

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