New Lewis® VL Axial Pump, Lewis® Horizontal Process Pump and Lewis® Vertical High Pressure Molten Salt Pump combine efficient engineering, unmatched pump performance and the outstanding wear life of the famous Lewmet® nickel-chrome alloy.

Weir Minerals would like to announce three new additions to its industry-leading Lewis® range of pumps and valves for the sulphur, sulphuric and phosphoric acid industries. The release of the Lewis® VL Axial Pump, Lewis® Horizontal Process Pump and Lewis® Vertical High Pressure Molten Salt Pump marks a new chapter in the brand’s proud history of innovative product and material engineering.

The three pumps have been designed to maximise wear life in some of the world’s most corrosive industrial applications while simplifying maintenance through their streamlined designs. This has significantly reduced the number of parts compared to previous pumps, without compromising their performance.

“Although they’re designed to address different challenges, these three new pumps were guided by the same core design principles: using advances in material technology to achieve increased performance and wear life, while reducing complexity to simplify equipment maintenance and give us the flexibility to deliver more engineered to order features that benefit our customers,” says Jerry Ernsky, Lewis® Product Manager, Weir Minerals.

“Fundamentally, Weir Minerals is in the business of solving tenacious problems that interfere with our customers’ operations, which is why every step of our product development is guided by our customers’ key challenges.”

First is the new Lewis® horizontal process pump, which combines the long-lasting corrosion and wear resistance that Lewmet® alloys are known for with the robust performance, efficiency and ease of maintenance associated with centrifugal pumps.

This single stage, end suction horizontal process pump is the product of years of experience and research, which perfectly complements the existing range of Lewis® vertical acid pumps and valves.

“Suitable for a wide variety of chemical processing applications, our new Lewis horizontal process pump offers efficient performance and superior wear resistance to the growing number of acid plants and fertiliser complexes operating around the world. Our engineered to order horizontal pumps are customised to support our customers’ goals of reducing plant maintenance and achieving a lower Total Cost of Ownership,” says Mr. Ernsky.

The new Lewis® VL Axial Flow Pump offers heavy duty construction ideal for use in corrosive, high temperature chemical processing applications, such as evaporator and crystalliser circulation. Its innovative design is highly flexible and can be customised to suit a wide variety of industrial applications, while its low component count makes servicing quicker and easier. 

The Lewis® vertical high pressure molten salt pump has been designed to meet the needs of the burgeoning Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) industry. This multi-stage vertical turbine pump has been specifically designed to handle the multifaceted challenges associated with the extremely high pressures and temperatures associated with pumping molten salt for thermal energy storage.

The molten salt pump can be expanded from 3 to 14 stages, has an integrated protective thermal barrier, a non-contracting shaft seal and a low NPSH first stage. Available with water or air-cooled thrust bearings, Lewis® vertical high pressure molten salt pumps support heads of up to 701m, temperatures of 593°C and up to 10.3Mpa pressure.

“Our new multi-stage molten salt pump is the first that has been custom designed to meet the unique requirements of the rapidly expanding number of Concentrated Solar Power plants around the world. Lewis pumps have always thrived in the world’s most demanding, high temperature applications and we’re delighted to bring our experience and engineering expertise to this increasingly important source of renewable power,” says Mr. Ernsky.

All three pumps are constructed with Weir Minerals’ industry-leading Lewmet® alloys, which incorporate highly specialised metallurgy designed to survive in the most corrosive industrial applications involving sulphur, sulphuric and phosphoric acids.

The Lewis® VL Axial Pump, Lewis® Horizontal Process Pump and Lewis® Vertical High Pressure Molten Salt Pump are now available worldwide. For additional information about the new range of Lewis® pumps, customers can contact their local Lewis presentative or visit onlylewis.weir.

Jerry Ernsky is available for comment.

Weir Minerals Africa