Noticed a huge difference in spoils handling after I switched to a different discharge pipe setup

We were running a 12 inch cutterhead on the Mississippi near Baton Rouge and kept having clogs every shift. I swapped from a standard steel discharge to a rubber hose with a 45 degree elbow at the pump outlet, and in 3 weeks our downtime dropped from 2 hours a day to maybe 20 minutes. Anyone else find a simple change like that made a big difference in their production?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_morgan26d ago

Actually you said you put a 45 degree elbow at the pump outlet, but that might be causing more harm than good. A 45 degree elbow on the discharge side creates turbulence right where the velocity is highest, which can actually reduce pump efficiency. The problem with clogs was probably the steel discharge pipe itself, not that you needed an elbow there. Rubber hose is way better because it flexes and dampens those pressure spikes that cause material to settle out. We did a similar swap on our 10 inch cutterhead but we kept the discharge straight for the first 10 feet, then put the bend in with a long radius 90. That setup cut our clog time down even more than what you're seeing.

taraj1126d ago

One thing nobody's brought up yet is how that 45 degree elbow shakes the whole pump base. I've seen it on our 6 inch where the vibration from that bend actually loosened the mounting bolts over time. We had to weld tabs on because they kept walking out. Straight pipe for the first 6 feet before any turns might save you a headache down the road with mount maintenance.