Liquid management is not an easy task even with industrial plant including drum pumps. Holding large amounts of liquid can be a burden on barrels and drums. These containers are strong and offer enough space as needed to store vast amounts of fluid, but extracting the fluid from them can be almost impossible. This is easy to understand when considering a 200 litre drum weighs more than 200 kilograms. These drums cannot be tipped easily to remove the liquid and this is when Flux Pumps comes into play.
What Is a Drum Pump?
As the name suggests, a drum pump is an instrument placed into a barrel or drum which pumps out the liquid inside. This instrument removes the need to tip or pivot any heavy drums to access the liquid inside. There are two types of drum pump and they have sub-types which offer different materials, tube lengths and models.
How the Drum Pump Works
The pump will be fitted onto the top opening of the drum using a narrow tube. This is housed in a vertical shaft. This pump shaft will have a small motor attached that generally runs on electricity. To turn the motor on, there will be a switch close to the shaft.
When the pump is turned on, the mechanism will suck the content of the drum out. The base of the tube is where the mechanism is held and will either have a rotor or a small centrifugal pump impeller. There are some pump models that are powered by hand using a crank. The manual turning of the crank will activate a piston pump. It is possible to use a drum pump on an interchangeable basis, but there are some that are hard-wired into the drum.
Industries That Use These Pumps
There are a lot of liquids that need to be processed, transported, transferred and handled in different industries. This is why drum pumps are not limited to hydro-based industries. Other industries may be more reliant on these pumps because oils, chemicals and other liquids will be denser than water.
An example of this is the pharmaceutical industry which uses drum pumps. There are other common industries that regularly make use of drum pumps including:
• Manufacturing plants
• Processing plants
• Chemical plants
• Cleaning services
• Automotive shops
The Types of Drum Pump
There are two types of drum pump on the market. These are hand-operated pumps and the electric pumps. Each pump type differs in their use, the models and general makeup.
The Hand-Operated Pumps
As the name suggests, these pumps are powered by manual force and not a motor. They are ideal for pumping applications in remote settings where there is little to no power available. There are some common characteristics of these pumps that you should be aware of.
They are generally available in plastic, steel, polyphenylene, aluminium, PVC, polyacetal or sulphide. The inlet sizes will range from ½ inch to 1 ½ inch. These pumps provide a leak-free, easy and spark-free pumping solution with different lever lengths and shapes.
The Electric Pumps
These pumps will have a motor that runs on electricity. Other than this, they are very similar to the hand-operated pumps. These are the best option when you have high volumes to transfer. They also have their own characteristics that you should know about.
These pumps can have an electric or battery-powered motor and they come with different voltages. They are usually heavier and thicker than the hand-operated pumps, but better for large quantities of liquid. These pumps have different level lengths and shapes.
What to Look for in a Drum Pump
When it comes to choosing the right drum pump there are a number of considerations. The first is to check the compatibility of your drums with the pump head and flow. You also need to check chemical type compatibility, the viscosity, motor and overall size. The outer tube material will also need to be resistant to the fluid in your drums.