Pump's smooth delivery avoids bubble issues

Michael Smith Engineers has supplied a Micropump and inverter system to Huddersfield-based Specialist Glass Products. It was needed for the process of making reinforced laminated doubleglazed panel sections.

Michael Smith Engineers was asked to provide a pumping system that would deliver a smooth, even and accurate output to reduce the chance of entrained bubbles forming when UV resin is introduced between two panels. The brief was for the pump to have a sealless magnet coupling so resin will not be exposed to air which causes it to harden, and it had to afford automatic slowing down of the pump at the end of the batch to prevent overfilling. The need was for a pumped batch metering transfer system for acrylic monomer resin with a viscosity of 100cP. This was designed to draw resin from the base connection of a 1000L IBC at a flow rate between 0.1 and 1.2L/min in metered batch sizes of 0.1 to 10L.

The system comprised a Micropump with an inverter controlled motor with integral dual channel encoder for operating at speeds to 2100 RPM.