By: Paul Rainer, VP of Sales & Marketing of Yamada America, Inc., Tom Stokes, Central & OEM Sales Manager of Yamada America, Inc., and Carl Glauber, Eastern Sales Manager of Yamada America, Inc.
The air operated diaphragm pump can be found in almost every location where liquids are pumped. Conversely, “dry” processes have no need for diaphragms pumps. Well, Yamada America has turned that logic on its head! Recently, Yamada was tasked with a challenge of moving waste overflow from an industrial dust collector. The Yamada Powder Pump was up to the challenge and was the ideal solution to keep our customer’s process up and running.
Dust collection is a critical component to many processes due to environmental issues. In the application at hand, a 55-gallon drum is used for collecting the overflow from large industrial dust collection system (Image 1). Because of the large volume of dust generated by the process, the overflow drum would be frequently filled, requiring the dust collection system to be shut down for change out. The Yamada distributor was tasked with creating a solution to empty the overflow without shutting down the dust collection system.
Our creative distributor designed a system to modify the 55-gallon drum with level sensors. The high/low level sensors are connected to the in-coming airline on a Yamada Powder Pump model NDP-50BAN-BH2 (Image 2). The high level turns the solenoid valve on allowing the in-coming air to operate the pump and the low-level sensor shuts down the air stopping the system until the drum is once again full. Theoretically the system should be a perfect solution to keep the process up and running and improve the customer’s process efficiency.
In theory this should work, but in reality, pumping powder can be difficult. With the Yamada Trial Pump Program, our end-user had nothing to lose and everything to gain. If the trial was a failure, there is no monetary risk to them. If it is a success, they have eliminated a significant impediment to improved production. The distributor modified the drum with the level sensors. Yamada supplied the NDP-50BAN-BH2 powder pump. The customer supplied the dust. The trial has been operating successfully for nearly 3 months. So successful that the customer bought the trial pump as well as a second system for a different dust collection point in the facility.
Whether your customers are moving liquids or powders, contact Yamada America. Yamada air operated diaphragm pumps are used from the simplest to the most demanding applications – Wet or Dry!
