Maintenance downtime at Thames Water's Bicester sewage treatment works (STW) has been significantly reduced following the installation of two revolutionary EZstrip maintain-in-place pumps from NOV Mono.
The plant's previous pumps, which transferred primary settled sewage sludge from four primary settlement tanks to a duty stand-by, were prone to blockages, causing significant down time for the Oxfordshire plant. Mono's EZstrip pump, which can be fully stripped down and maintained in place in just 30 minutes, provided the ideal solution.
Bob Steptoe, site manager at Bicester Sewage Treatment Works, commented: "Our previous equipment just wasn't able to cope and was causing significant downtime at the site. Having successfully specified Mono equipment in the past, I knew we could count on the team to provide an easy and reliable solution to our problem.
"The excellent maintain-in-place benefits of EZstrip have gone a long way to ensure that the challenging maintenance and repair issues caused by our old pumps are long gone. We are very happy with the Mono pumps and they are performing extremely well."
Mono's EZstrip progressing cavity pump is the biggest leap forward in progressing cavity (PC) pump design for 30 years and is an extension of Mono's popular Compact C Range. The EZstrip has been specifically designed to provide a quick and easy way to disassemble, de-rag and maintain a PC pump in-situ, eliminating the costly maintenance and down time that servicing can often cause.
The chamber of the EZstrip pump has a two piece design which can be opened in less than one minute, the suction chamber and rotating parts de-ragged and the chamber reassembled with a spanner and an Allen key. The whole operation takes less than two and a half minutes (depending on the severity of the rag blockage).
The EZstrip pump can be installed into new plants or retrofitted into existing Mono Compact C installations. No electrical disconnection is required and suction and discharge pipes remain untouched. The model range has a capacity of up to 165m3/h and 12 bar pressure, and is available in either cast iron or stainless steel. A choice of rotor and stator materials are available, including WRAS compliant elastomers and a pre-assembled drive train, with two year warranty.