As heavy-duty industrial valves manufacturing and services provider Flowrox continually develops and improves its product and service offering using state-of-the-art technology, the company has developed various new products for use in acid mine drainage and wastewater treatment in mining.

These include the Flowrox larger-diameter slurry knife gate valves that isolate flow in demanding process conditions. These valves, which will be launched in November this year, can handle pressures of up to 20 bar.

The company will also launch a new centrifugal slurry pump and a new chemical dosing metering pump next month.

Flowrox sub-Saharan Africa MD Henlo Blignaut says these valves and pumps are used to purify mine water.

The valve sleeve, pump hose, valve body and pump casings are manufactured from various materials and the combination of the engineering and design ensures that the products are resistant to abrasive process materials used in water treatment, says Blignaut.

The material used to manufacture the pumps and valves depends on the type of process, including the medium and pressure or flow, for which they will be used. Materials vary from mild steel to stainless steel. Flowrox also has a range of recipes made from rubber for the sealing components depending on the process parameters.

Blignaut emphasises that filtration processes and tailings transfers rely on good-quality pumps and valves that can handle the abrasive process media. This is important, as these processes play a major role in the uninterrupted production of a complete process plant and, if the plant is not functional, it will cause major production delays that will have a negative effect on profit margins.

Flowrox’s valves and pumps are used in flotation cells, thickener processes, flocculant processes, solid and liquid separation filters and tailings process applications in the water purification process.

Product Offering

The Flowrox product range includes the chemical dosing metering pumps, centrifugal slurry pumps, peristaltic slurry hose pumps, progressive cavity slurry pumps, slurry pinch valves and slurry knife gate valves.

The next generation of metering pumps, which was launched in June, is an upgrade from the previous generation. These pumps comprise the FXM2 and FXM3 series with integrated Flowrox Smart Solutions features.

The easier-to-carry lightweight pump, which can be used in chemical dosing applications that require metering, was manufactured and combined with accurate metering and a selection of different tube materials, making the FXM pumps the ultimate choice for chemical dosing applications.

Notably, smart functions were added to the pump to enhance its applications. The pump is Industrial Internet of Things-ready, Blignaut explains.

“All products are available in Smart Solutions and are used in conjunction with Malibu, an online platform.”

Malibu is a combined online process monitoring, maintenance and analysis tool that helps to predict failures before they occur, boost productivity and increase safety in chemical dosing processes.

Owing to the high cost of high-quality Flowrox products, the biggest challenge is to educate clients on the total cost of ownership – the higher the quality, the more expensive products will be, although production will increase owing to reduced downtime, Blignaut explains.

“With pumps and valves it will be cheaper over the long run to own, but with our larger equipment, the option for clients to choose an install, commission, operate and service contract could be more financially beneficial, as downtime could be reduced,” he concludes.