Redesign of the impeller and shaft section of a submersible pumping system
Submersible pumps
Sulzer Pumps Ireland, based in Wexford, has a wide range of pump manufacturing capabilities, including machining, assembly, motor winding, packaging and shipping of submersible pumps – ranging from 100 W to 52 kW – for the submersible wastewater segment. A product research and development team is located on site and the plant in Wexford is home to a state-of-the-art product testing facility.
R&D team
The facility in Wexford has a long tradition in manufacturing wastewater pumps since 1973, and it has developed into the largest producer of submersible pumps of the ABS product brand. The Wexford facility currently employs 270 people.
43
years in business
3
projects over six months
100,000
hours of pump life
“Sulzer’s contact with SEAM began in September 2015, with the redesign of a rotorshaft on the XFP PE3 submersible, solids-handling sewage pump. This is the second largest pump built at the Sulzer plant, with P2 of 22kW. Each report from SEAM contained analysis, inferences and recommendations, which is a great benefit to the customer and truly collaborative. Throughout the process, there have been helpful discussions and exchanges of information as required, avoiding delay. SEAM provide a complete materials investigation, design support and failure analysis service.”
Ben Breen
Technical Manager, Sulzer
The Sulzer Pumps & SEAM partnership
Sulzer Pumps Ireland have collaborated with the SEAM Gateway in WIT on a number of notable projects, such as the redesign of the impeller and shaft section for their range of submersible pumping systems. SEAM undertook FEA analysis on the current design before proceeding to investigate a number of design options and then selecting the most suitable solution to provide improved lifetime of the shaft component.
Validation of the final design is currently ongoing at Sulzer. The partnership provided Sulzer with access and expertise to expensive computer simulation software, which is greatly more cost effective than having such facilities in-house. The collaboration with SEAM has provided Sulzer the opportunity to refine and fully explore design concepts without the cost of building full-scale prototypes.