Chopper pumps

Handling flows up to 400m³/hr at heads of 17.8, installation only required a simple and quick retro fit utilising all the existing installation hardware, providing an effective solution to prevent blockages and instances of drains ‘backing-up’.

The innovative design of the Vaughan Chopper pump makes it particularly effective in the most challenging solids pumping applications; the seal design is reliable and durable, assisted by the patented upper cutter design. Stray solids that may be trapped within the mechanical seal chamber are shredded and removed by the impeller pump out vanes turning against the upper cutter.

In addition, solids are then chopped by the cupped and sharpened impeller blades turning across the cutter bar, creating a smooth ‘slicing effect’ enabling the conditioned slurry to be easily pumped upstream through the piping system without plugging.

Finally, a centred nut with a tooth cuts stringy materials that tend to wrap at the pump inlet and where non-fibrous hard solids are present there is the option for a (removable) disintegrator tool which agitates and breaks up large solids to prevent suction blockage.

Graham Powell, maintenance engineer at Anglian Water comments, “The pumps are performing very well and we are singing their praises across the business”.  More recently, Andy Spencer at Anglian Water confirms “Since the two Vaughan Pumps were installed we have yet to return to the site to unblock either of the pumps, whereas before we may have been on-site at least once a week with two operatives”.

Through their experiences at Anglian Water and numerous other waste water treatment sites across the UK, P&M Pumps have demonstrated that Vaughan Chopper Pumps are an effective solution to the most challenging ‘solids pumping’ situations where other types of chopper, macerating or whole solids passing pumps have traditionally struggled.

In most cases, retrofitting a Vaughan Chopper Pump into a problematic area improves the whole process and will be self-financing, with unrivalled payback periods in some cases being a matter of months, thereafter minimising the effect to the budget holders.