- Case Study
- In an oil-based defoamer application, a steel manufacturing company needed to replace its diaphragm pumps every six months
- For this application, the steel company has replaced diaphragm pumps with a Qdos chemical metering pump, which ran without maintenance for over a year
- Cost of ownership, easy pumphead replacement and safe containment of product have been leading benefits of integrating Qdos pumps into their process for the steel company
A large steel manufacturing company has experienced longer pump life and lower maintenance since installing Qdos chemical metering and dosing pumps in a defoamer application at an industrial plant in Ontario, Canada.
The company has benefited from a higher return on investment (ROI) since two Qdos peristaltic pumps replaced diaphragm pumps from another pump manufacturer.
"Their previous pump cost was almost half of our pump, so two replacements a year came close to one Qdos pump, so it made financial sense to replace the diaphragm pumps with Qdos 20 pumps."
The average life of the previously used diaphragm pumps in this oil-based defoamer application was approximately six months, due to leaking diaphragms.
A Qdos 20 PU, one of six pumps in the Qdos® range from Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Solutions (WMFTS), is now being used for defoamer metering, with a flow range of 2-10 mL/min. It is a flooded suction from the chemical tote and the Qdos 20 PU is transferring approximately 30 ft (9 m) horizontally into an open tank.
The company’s process has improved due to the quick pumphead replacement and virtually zero maintenance of the Qdos pump, which was installed early in 2023 and has operated for 445+ days without requiring any replacement or maintenance. The Qdos 20 PU pump has run for over double the average lifetime of the diaphragm pumps in the same defoamer application.
Sim Ghotra, District Sales Manager at Watson-Marlow Canada, said: “It was costing almost the same to replace the kit and other parts every six months as compared to getting a new existing diaphragm pump, when accounted for parts, labour time.
“Their previous pump cost was almost half of our pump, so two replacements a year came close to one Qdos pump, so it made financial sense to replace the diaphragm pumps with Qdos 20 pumps. The major advantage the customer saw in the Qdos pump was easy pumphead replacement, and also the fully contained pumphead.
“The customer realised that by changing the pumphead they could move the pump to a different application if needed. Also, maintenance is quite easy and will only take few minutes. Pay back for this application was less than a year.
“The customer has been pleased with the success of the Qdos pump in this application and has shown interest in replacing multiple other diaphragm pumps in the near future with Qdos pumps.”
The Qdos 20 PU has a maximum flow rate of 450 mL/min (7.13 USGPH), with a maximum pressure of 7 bar (100 psi).
Qdos pumps eliminate the need for ancillary equipment while ensuring accurate (±1%), linear and repeatable (±0.5%) metering across all process conditions.