With its newly launched CURVE™ range of slurry pumps, Pump and Abrasion Technologies® (PAT) have proven that they possess the know-how and the infrastructure to deliver first class slurry solutions and excellent service. This, says Managing Director Jaco Buitendag, is the first step towards their goal of becoming the undisputed first choice as a provider of slurry pump solutions across Africa.
“One of our main goals in developing the CURVE™ was to offer customer tailored solutions. Every aspect of the CURVE’s™ design is based on feedback from clients across the continent and so we feel that this is currently the only pump on the market to address every one of their operational needs,” Buitendag explains. “And now that we successfully launched the CURVE™ to the South African market at Electra Mining and to the world at the International MINExpo held in Las Vegas, we feel that we are well on our way to becoming a renowned worldwide as the leader in the design, manufacture and application of heavy duty slurry pumps.” Buitendag goes on to say that by establishing an extensive network of sales and service ‘hubs’ throughout Africa in order to provide efficient client service, they are committed to being a trusted global partner.
The final CURVE™ product was three years in the making and emerged from a clean sheet approach. It boasts features that indicate the extent of PAT’s expertise and experience in the slurry pump market. The products in the CURVE™ range offer decreased energy consumption throughout the product life cycle, TOC reduction, longer wear life, increased efficiency and improved safety for personnel during both installation and maintenance.
Buitendag contends that the slurry pumping industry was overdue for the launch of a cutting-edge pumping product saying that no significant advancements had been made to products on the market for almost 50 years. “With the rate of technological advancements happening in the mining industry we felt that a new slurry pumping product was desperately needed in the market. We proceeded to allocate a significant portion of our development resources to collecting customer feedback and packaged this into what we feel represents the new generation in slurry pumps,” says Buitendag. “The end result is a benefit saturated product that enables PAT to strengthen our clients’ operations.”
In designing the CURVE™, PAT’s expert design and engineering team relooked the traditional internal hydraulic layouts found in most slurry pumps. Leaning on their knowledge of what the market requires, they created an innovative design which was applied to the specific geometric size and the exact profiles of hydraulic passage through the pump. “When plotting the specific geometric size against total lifecycle cost there is a point where capital and operational costs achieve a combined optimum. Every model in the CURVE™ range is sized to hit this optimum and deliver the lowest ownership cost to the end-user,” Buitendag explains.
Knowing that cost is always a key factor for mining operations, PAT’s designers ensured that low energy consumption was prioritised in the CURVE’s™ design and that the CURVE™ could be retrofitted to legacy pumping systems with minimal changes to existing piping.
“We are extremely proud of the product that we have been able to bring to the market. The innovative advancements we have made are a result of the combined capabilities of our entire team. Thanks to their expertise, we now have a product that offers a reduction in downtime by up to 80%, a 40-60% reduction in total ownership costs and – thanks to our strategic distribution – shorter delivery lead time,” Buitendag concludes.
This ensures that the CURVE™ lives up to its motto: The next CURVE in slurry pumping.
More information on the CURVE™ is available at www.pumpandabrasion.co.za
