Bitumen Emulsion for Electrical Engineering Company - Gear Pump

Customer: Electrical Contractor & Engineering Company

Location: UK

Equipment Supplied

1 x 2" - Horizontal Internal Eccentric Gear Pump w/ Heating Jacket on Cover 

• Fluid: Bitumen Emulsion
• Capacity: 60 l/min @ 1 Bar
• Operating Temperature: 50ºC
• Viscosity: 1500 cSt
• Connections: 2" (DN50 - PN16) @ 90º Angular Position
• Geared Motor: 2.2 kW / 380V / 3 Phase / 50 Hz / 1450 rpm
• Operating Speed: 180 rpm
• Casing: Cast Iron GG 25
• Gears: Cast Iron GGG 50
• Shaft Material: Heat Treated Steel
• Bearings: Bronze
• Sealing System: Soft Seal

Enquiry Details

An engineering company needed a quick turnaround on a pump for bitumen emulsion @ 50ºC operating temperature, with a required capacity of 60 l/min @ 1 Bar discharge pressure. This was a fairly easy enquiry, apart from the fact that the application required the pump to maintain the fluid temperature.

Used generally in the coating of asphalt, emulsified bitumen usually consists of droplets of bitumen which are suspended in water. The dispersion of this under normal circumstances would not take place, as oil and water don’t mix, however, once an emulsifying agent is added, the asphalt will remain dispersed.

Most emulsions are used for surface treatments as they enable much lower operating temperatures (45-70ºC). This is much lower than hot mix asphalt cement applications (150-190ºC). Key benefits of the lower operating temperatures are that it avoids damage to the asphalt and that it results in better safety for field personnel.

Solution

Castle Pumps were able to offer a perfect solution in the form of one of their internal gear pumps with an integral heating jacket. This enables the fluid’s temperature to be maintained whilst pumping – which can be done at order stage or retrofitting, by changing the casing cover.

The volumetric nature of the gear pump facilitates accurate flow control even on fluids with a viscosity of up to 50’000 cSt, easily handling the 1500 cSt bitumen emulsion. Pressure alleviation can be facilitated via either an integral relief valve (when a heating jacket isn’t employed) or externally by installing a By-Pass Circuit. In this instance, because a heating jacket was required, we subsequently supplied a suitably sized external relief valve to be integrated into the client’s by-pass circuit.

In addition, because gear pumps can operate in both directions, the casings on our pumps can be rotated through eight different positions, to facilitate easy integration into a wide variety of pipework configurations. This enabled a quick and easy installation into our client’s system.