Pumps for Ceramic Industry: Slurry, Glaze & Slip Transfer

Ceramic Industry Pumps in India

Pumpscart pumps’ ability to handle abrasive substances, and efficiently pump the tough ones make them particularly useful for applications in the ceramic industry in India.

Pumpscart is the supplier and exporter of ceramic industries pumps in India. Industrial ceramics are manufacture of minerals that are crushed and ground into a fine powder that is then added to a solution for purification. The chemical precipitate that forms is separated from this solution and heated to form a highly pure powder. Industrial applications include refractories, abrasives, bearings, and heat and wear resistant components. Ceramics and glass are used in many industrial applications to support manufacturing within sectors such as metallurgical, chemical, mechanical, and energy production.

Ceramic characteristics:

Ceramic materials compose pump components such as liners, plungers, cylinder walls, balls and impellers, which are in contact with abrasive or corrosive media (e.g., liquids, slurries, hot gases). Sliding components within the drive portion of the pump also benefit from the low friction, tight tolerances and the ability to run dry or without lubrication. Ceramics are brittle, low-toughness materials, so plastic or metal housings and backings are used behind the ceramic components for support and durability.

Pump designs must be adjusted for ceramic materials properties such as thermal expansion, brittleness or distributer. For instance, blind, threaded holes are not suitable in a brittle material.

The highly smooth or low-roughness surface finish generated on ground and polished ceramic surfaces dramatically extends packing seal life. Many pumps and valves provide the option of ceramic face seals to provide leak tightness in applications with abrasive slurries and corrosive liquids.

In some applications, a ceramic coating on a pump component is sufficient to provide enhanced wear resistance performance. For instance, the ceramic-coated horizontal piston pump from Binks has ceramic-coated piston rods, piston, and seats. These are intended to resist wear from highly abrasive fluids and can last longer than hard chrome pistons.

For more extreme wear and high-temperature applications, a solid ceramic pump component might be warranted. General Pump offers a 316 stainless steel triplex pump, which has solid ceramic plungers. In some applications, a fully ceramic pump is required to withstand high temperatures, highly corrosive media or to operate along with lubrication. Its ceramic pumps are used for transporting highly corrosive salt brine at temperatures of 550° C.

Its used low-friction ceramic bearings in a military application moving a low-viscosity fluid incapable of lubricating the pump. It also made a magnetically driven ceramic gear pump for moving sulfuric acid at a temperature of over 130° C. The acid-contacting parts (e.g., housing, bearing, gearwheels) consist of zirconium oxide.

Ceramic pumps are highly prized by engineers in the pharmaceutical, food and beverage, medical and cosmetics industries for their cleanability, durability and precision filling. They are an important process system component in high-production dispensing environments. Ceramic filling pumps are excellent at dosing small and medium volumes of sterile liquids, as ceramic use chemically inert and biocompatible.

Ceramic’s low wear rate means the media typically can be expected to experience little to no contamination from the pump. The ceramic plungers and components provide a long-life pump, which allows the filling pump to operate for 10 years in a high-volume production plant with minimum maintenance.

Ceramic pumps and ceramic pump parts offer advantages compared to metal and plastic counterparts. They also have some limitations that may restrict their widespread use, including cost, design adjustments and brittleness. In certain corrosive and abrasive applications and in high-volume, precision-filling end uses, however, ceramic pumps are the optimal choice.