New coating plant for Nova Rotors pump
A FLEXIBLE APPLICATION SYSTEM FOR A QUALITY ORIENTED COATING PROCESS ON PROGRESSIVE CAVITY PUMPS
Nova Rotors is an Italian company based in Sossano (Vicenza, Italy) manufacturing cavity pumps for the food, environmentand oil & gas industries since 1990. Its strength is the use of a patented core technology providing for a standardisation of the hydraulic parts on which all the construction variants of the pumps are based. It may seem a very simple idea, but this eff ort in design, started in 2009 and completed in 2011 with the start of production, now enables Nova Rotors to off er a wide range of pumps, all custom designed but with a limited engineering phase – that is, with one of the highest process effi ciencies levels in the industry.
“All over the world market, we are the only ones capable of producing a series of pumps featuring an 8-stage rotor with standard components and steel micro-castings: our competitors have to resort to a dedicated engineering phase and to expensive carpentry components, sometimes of poor quality”, Manuele Dal Maso, Nova Rotors’ Technical Manager, says. “Once our core technology has been defi ned and tested, we have designed all the variants that enable us to meet any operating requirement for any kind of product, from the most liquid to the most dense and viscous ones, in the industrial, food, environmental and energy sectors.
Nova Rotors’ approach implies a high level of specialisation in all stages of the production process, from design to product testing, machining to fi nishing, assembly to certifi cation. The guarantees of resistance, durability, high performance and, not least, aesthetic quality are the elements determining the level of satisfaction of the customer. In particular, the recent penetration of the oil & gas market has resulted in the need for pumps with higher durability levels and coatings with better corrosion resistance characteristics. “Since when we entered this market, there has been an increase in the demand for coating systems resistant to corrosion class C5 conditions both in marine and industrial environments, as required by the standard ISO 12944”, Dal Maso states.
The importance of this requirement and the need for extreme fl exibility in order to treat pumps with signifi cantly varying dimensions and a low consistency of the batches have prompted the company to make a major plant investment.
The aim was being able to be productive and ensure quality in all working conditions, from the coating of hundreds of 500 mm pumps to the treatment of up to 7 m long submerged vertical pumps.
The cooperation of CM Spray (Carbonera, Treviso, Italy) has played a crucial role in this plant renovation process.
The company has revolutionised Nova Rotors’ application system by installing a new powder centre as well as including an electronic mixing system for two-component coatings and new pneumatic spraying guns. It has also replaced the old coating booth featuring a fi ltering wall with two new pressurised booths that, as will be discussed later, ensure high operational fl exibility, as greatly needed by Nova Rotors.
“Our company was established in 1990 by four members already working in this fi eld and immediately began the production of progressive cavity pumps for sludge treatment operations, the main application of this kind of product,” Manuele Dal Maso states. “These are volumetric pumps whose main feature is the ability to pump even very dense substances, as there are no valves inside it and as the fl ow of the material occurs with a stable pressure and without pulsations. Soon, however, the fi rm’s owners realised that the functionality of progressive cav