Sales of the Sunflo range of medium-duty centrifugal pumps have been positive since independent pumps supply and equipment repair company AESPUMP South Africa was appointed as the new local distribution and service agent for the range in May 2013, the company reports.

US-based pumps and compressors manufacturer Sundyne – which manufactures the Sunflo range – has been active in South Africa since 1967. After a comprehensive audit of AESPUMP’s capabilities, Sundyne decided to appoint AESPUMP as the new agent and sole distributor for Southern Africa.

AESPUMP sales and marketing director Neil Britz tells Engineering News the company offers pump-testing facilities and flame-proofed apparatus for use in flammable gas atmospheres. It complies fully with the ISO 9001:2008 standard for quality management systems, the ISO 14001 standard for environmental management and OHSAS 18001:2007.

The OHSAS 18001 standard assists organisations in managing and negating occupational health and safety risks to employees and in improving existing health and safety management systems.

Additionally, he notes that AESPUMP is an apprenticeship- training operation that is approved by the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector Edu-cation and Training Authority.

Meanwhile, Britz points out that the Sunflo pumps range is in use at several local refinery operations, including energy and chemicals group Sasol; petroleum products refining companies Engen, Shell and BP South Africa’s petroleum joint venture refineries – South African Petroleum Refineries (Sapref).

The range is also being used in several local mining operations.

“Sunflo pumps are typically used for low-flow, high-pressure applications, such as boiler-feed systems, filtration plants, reverse osmosis, mono-nitrogen oxides suppression, wash-down, injection, seal flush and condensate return,” says Britz.

Further, he notes that the pumps incorporate a compact, single, open-impeller configuration that allows for sufficient clearances and no performance degradation during use.

“The pumps’ patented inducers incorporate an axial flow design that lowers net positive suction-head requirements, while a modular, easily removable high-speed shaft assembly contains all the pump’s rotating parts, seals and bearings. This allows for their replacement and for pump restart in under an hour,” Britz highlights.

The pumps are available in close-coupled, frame-mounted or base-plate configurations.

Sunflo Range

Britz points out that the product range comprises three main pump models. “The P-1500 gear-driven centrifugal pump is a non-American Petroleum Institute (API) standard pump that delivers flows of up to 7.5 m3/h and head heights of 396 m. This model is designed for general industry services such as wash water.”

The Sunflo P-2500 is a gear-driven, integrally geared centrifugal pump, also for general industrial service, which delivers flows of up to 41 m3/h and head heights of up to 792 m.

“The P-2500 is used in non-API services that include wash water and boiler feed; these pumps are in continuous service worldwide,” Britz adds.

The third pump is the P-3000 gear-driven centrifugal pump that delivers flows of up to 114 m3/h.