BJM’s KZN Pump Discharges Heavy Sand And Gravel Slurry, Keeps Roads Open At Cement Plant.
By Mark S. Kuhar
At its Pennsuco operation near Miami, Titan Florida Cement and Aggregates – a unit of Titan America LLC – operates the largest cement facility in Florida and the fifth-largest quarry in the United States.
Annual cement production at the plant exceeds 1.8 million tons, and the quarry produces more than 7.5 million tons of limestone products a year. The plant produces bulk and bagged cement and aggregate products that are sold to public and private construction markets.
South Florida is known for its flash rainstorms, especially in summer when a downpour is often a daily occurrence. Titan Florida Cement and Aggregates’ Pennsuco facility mines, washes and sizes gravel and produces cement; it’s dusty work that’s made more challenging during heavy rain.
Roads become impassable as rock dust, sand, gravel, grit and other debris wash across the flat terrain. Workers use heavy earthmoving equipment to plow the slop off to the side of the roads, reopening them to traffic.
The highly abrasive runoff collects in a pond some 100-yd. long x 40-yd. wide, and this must be pumped often to keep its level low enough to prevent the roads from flooding again. Water from the runoff pond is also used to wash screens in the plant.
Need for New Pumps
For many years, the Pennsuco plant used belt-driven Gallagher/Ash pumps to keep the runoff pond at the proper level. However, the pumps were expensive and difficult to maintain, as there were long lead times for parts; furthermore, the parts themselves were also expensive.
Working with Barney’s Pumps in Coral Springs, Fla., engineers at the plant purchased a KZN110 heavy-duty submersible slurry pump from BJM Pumps.
The pump is especially designed for pumping heavy slurries containing lime, mill scale, coal, ash, silt, food waste or sand and gravel. Its key components are made of high-chrome iron to resist abrasion, and the pump features an agitator that puts heavy solids into suspension so they can be pumped away with the liquid.
Titan Florida Cement and Aggregates later purchased a second KZN110, and the two KZNs have been running reliably at Pennsuco for more than three years. The Gallagher/Ash pumps are now stored for backup use only.
KZN Heavy Duty Submersible Slurry Pumps are designed for use in industries that face the most difficult pumping conditions, including lime slurries, mill scale, coal runoff sumps, wash down sumps, ash transfer, tailings ponds, slag pits, food wastes, silt removal, sand and gravel dewatering, and barge and tank cleanout.
Product Specs
Every KZN slurry pump is constructed with the following abrasive resistant 28 percent chrome iron (600 Brinell, 57 Rockwell C) components:
- Agitator – to fluidize settled solids into a slurry.
- Wear plate– replaceable hardened surface on the suction side where erosion would cause a loss of pump performance.
- Semi-open Impeller– to handle abrasive solid concentrations as high as 70 percent by weight.
Every KZN slurry pump model is protected by:
- Class H motor insulationand built in amperage (FLA) and temperature-overload protection.
- Double silicon carbide mechanical seals in a separate oil filled seal chamber.
- Heavy duty lip seal – an additional protection for the mechanical seal.
- Stainless steel shaft and shaft sleeve – saves on shaft wear due to abrasives and corrosion.
- Pump volutes cast from hardened ductile iron, 300 Brinnell hardness; twice as abrasive resistant as standard ductile iron.
Every KZN is a top-discharge pump:
- KZN heavy duty slurry pumps are utility pumps; frequently dragged from one site to another. The KZN doesn’t have a side discharge connection that can break off or be damaged as it is pulled and pushed into place.
- Top-discharge pumps are cooled by pumped liquid. The KZN slurry pumps can pump a sump or pit down to within inches of the bottom. A side-discharge pump without a cooling jacket must stay submerged to avoid overheating, leaving as much as 3 ft. of unpumped slurry.
- Top discharge means “SLIM” – even the largest model with a ٢٢.٧٥-in. “waistline” will fit down a manhole with a hose attached.
- The KZN’s hardened ductile iron volutes, cast with extra thick walls at the point where pumped slurry enters the discharge.
BJM Pumps is headquartered in Old Saybrook, Conn., and has been serving the industry since 1983. BJM Pumps serves many different industries through two separate divisions: Submersible Pumps: municipal, chemical, construction, sewage, mining and process industries. Electrical Motor Testers: used worldwide in virtually all types of industry and government agencies.
Information for this article courtesy of BJM Pumps.
