Product category:
Pumps, Vacuum pumps
News Release from: Watson-Marlow Bredel Pumps | Subject: 505 DU and 504U pumps
Edited by the Processingtalk Editorial
Team on 09 September 2005
How to pump vitreous enamel - use
peristaltics!
Glen Dimplex Home Appliances wanted a solution for pumping vitreous enamel on to the surfaces of cookers: the ideal solution turned out to be peristaltic technology from Watson Marlow Bredel Pumps
When Glen Dimplex Home Appliances, which incorporates the Stoves, New World and Belling brand names, wanted a solution for pumping vitreous enamel on to the surfaces of its cookers, the ideal solution turned out to be peristaltic technology from Watson Marlow Bredel Pumps At its Prescot, Merseyside manufacturing facility, over 1200 employees help produce cookers for domestic, leisure and business use
This article was originally published on Processingtalk on 10 Jun 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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Approximately 10 years ago the company developed a groundbreaking method of spraying enamel using high speed disc technology.
However, this did not come without its difficulties, as metal finishing manager, Ian Anders explains: "Although the disc method had been used in paint application for many years, it was never used in vitreous enamelling.
This was because vitreous enamel is a lot coarser and heavier than paint, hence we had to develop enamels that resembled the paint viscosity as close as we could, this then allowed us to use our disc method of application".
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Despite this innovation, initial use of the disc technology employed traditional pressure pots, which used pressurised air to force the fluid to the application, which in turn then atomised the material.
The pressure pots proved unreliable, leading to problems concerning repeated cross contamination when changing colour and irregular flow of material to the atomising head.
Glen Dimplex Home Appliances resolved to seek a better solution.
"We spoke to Watson-Marlow and asked to take a peristaltic pump on trial," says Mr Anders.
"The sales engineer Peter McCormack duly obliged and we haven't looked back since.
One of the problems with vitreous enamels is that when processed it is more like a grinding paste than a fluid.
Therefore the peristaltic pump needed to be robust and reliable.
Testament to Watson-Marlow is the fact that we still have the very model we took on trial some 10 years ago.
We use it as a back up for more recent models we have purchased".
Since the successful trial, Glen Dimplex Home Appliances has established four disc plants at its Prescot site, each employing three Watson-Marlow peristaltic pumps.
Along with one model retained for back-up, the total number on site currently stands at 8, with 14 pump heads.
The peristaltic pumps are applying colour to thousands of leading cookers every year - Glen Dimplex Home Appliances currently has a 24 per cent share of the market, making it the largest cooker manufacturer in the UK.
The company is also the fastest growing in the built-in sector, increasing its share by a third in the past year.
The benefits of using peristaltic technology are vast, as Mr Anders confirms: "Among the advantages are rapid colour change, along with better control over pump speed and volume of enamel pumped.
However, the biggest benefit is the massive reduction of cross contamination between colours, and ease at which we can change colours".
The reason for this is that peristaltic pumps have no valves, seals or glands.
Nothing but the hose or tube touches the fluid, eliminating the risk of the pump contaminating the fluid or the fluid contaminating the Watson Marlow 505 DU and 504U pumps.
Another benefit witnessed by Glen Dimplex Home Appliances is the reduction of day to day maintenance costs and yearly legislation conformities now that pressure pots have been entirely eliminated at the Prescot site. Request a free brochure from Watson-Marlow Bredel Pumps ...
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