Pumps and pressure cleaners producer Australian Pump Industries, commonly known as Aussie Pumps, has been actively looking to the African continent for distribution outlets, says MD Warwick Lorenz.

Australian Pump, located in Sydney’s Norwest “Silicon Valley” area, operates a two-and-a-half-acre facility that designs, builds and exports a range of pumps for mining, construction and agriculture.

“Conditions in Australia are not unlike those found in many African countries. We face the challenges of drought, bushfires and floods regularly as we try to carry out the major activities of mining and farming,” Lorenz explains.

He believes that, because of the many similarities Australia shares with African countries, the company’s products have a real aptitude for reducing costs and providing a safer and more positive outcome for communities across the continent.

Australian Pump has developed products and methods that help Australia deal with the droughts, floods and soaring temperatures that affect its mining and agriculture industries, and has recently shipped machines to Angola for gas projects. The company also has numerous pieces of equipment operating in South Africa and Kenya.

High Standards, High Quality

Australian Pump specialises in high-performance, self-priming centrifugal transfer pumps for a range of applications, inclusive of firefighting and water and chemicals transfer. The company also manufactures and imports high-pressure cleaning equipment, including cold water blasters, steam machines and drain cleaning jetters, for tradesmen and cleaning professionals under the Aussie Eco-Clean brand.

Australian Pump developed its product range by developing an evolution process. Lorenz explains that designs are generated by the demand from consumers who, as professional users, are not looking for cheap, third-world products. This is exemplified by the Aussie Fire Chief, which Australian Pump says is regarded as the world’s leading high-pressure lightweight portable fire pump and comes with a five-year warranty.

Australian Pump is holding a competition in Australia to find the oldest operating Fire Chief. Thus far, the company has managed to find units that are still in operation that feature the original Honda engines and are in excess of 30 years old.

When it comes to heavy-duty pressure cleaners for mining or construction applications, the company builds machines up to 500 bar (7 300 pounds per square inch) in either petrol, diesel or electric motor versions.

“Our products are used in shipyards, opencut mines, in professional large-scale farming and even for government applications,” says Lorenz.

The company uses only top-quality internationally accepted first-world petrol and diesel engines from leading manufacturers.

Driven by Innovation

Australian Pump has supported some of Australia’s biggest projects in recent times, supplying equipment to mining giant BHP Billiton, global mining giant Rio Tinto, and oil and gas giant Chevron, to name a few examples. Lorenz emphasises that these key mining projects are as important to Australia as they are to the agricultural activities of the company.

Lorenz points to the “brutal” cyclone Debbie that hit the north-east coast of Australia this year, during which time Australian Pump was able to spring into action with a range of flood lifter pumps that were capable of quickly redirecting large volumes of water. The company’s heavy-duty trash pump was able to provide “good service” in terms of flood mitigation, while its range of pressure cleaning equipment, marketed under the Aussie Eco Clean brand, played a significant part in the flood clean-up programme.

Lorenz also highlights the town of Horsham, a Victorian city that flooded a couple of years ago. In this instance, the city centre was saved by an Aussie MQ600TD heavy-duty 6" trash pump, which he extolls pumps a tremendous amount – 6 000 ℓ/min. The big pump was able to redirect water from the flood area into a channel, thus, bypassing the town.

Another example of product innovation is the company’s strides to combat drought, an objective that has the same level of importance to the company as flood relief. The company’s “Drought-Proof Australia” programme is a campaign aimed at massive infrastructure work within Australia to turn the semidesert country into fertile productive land. Products produced by Australian Pump can be widely used in that area and substantially build the wealth of the country, which produces around A$60-billion of agricultural products a year.

These experiences in product development of big pressure cleaners, solids handling portable pumps and hydrostatic test equipment could play a major role in the development of African countries developing much the same types of projects, Lorenz postulates.

Moreover, the company expects its new range of upgraded drain cleaning equipment to play a major role in improving maintenance of sewage works. In this way, it is not only a major contributor in major cities of Australia, but in remote communities where facilities for the collection of human waste for treatment is an issue.

The drain cleaner range, called the Aussie Cobra series, is sold worldwide and is popular in South East Asia. Further, the company has machines operating in New York.