MechChem Africa March 2017

MechChem Africa

•

March 2017

AM Engineering’s history dates back

tothe1970s,toacompanycalledSan-

dock Austral, which had the license

to locally manufacture Allis Chalm-

ers pumps. “But in the 70s, Sandock Austral

withdrew fromSouthAfrica, leading to a buy-

out by the local manufacturing director, who

bought the casting patterns and secured the

rights to continue tomanufacture the pumps

here in South Africa,” Lubbe begins.

“When ITT purchased Allis Chalmers,

the licensing agreement was extended, but

ITT soon acquired the Gould pumps brand

instead, leaving the Allis Chalmers installed

base across Africa unsupported. So the

SAMCO pump brand was born,” he relates.

Over the years, notable changes were

made to suit the harsh local requirements.

“We addedwear plates to the designs, for ex-

ample, so that thepumps couldbe refurbished

more often and more economically, giving

thema longer life and reducing theownership

costs,” he explains.

SAM Engineering, the manufacturer of SAMCO pumps in SouthAfrica, delivers a variety of chemical

and corrosion-resistant pumps that are custom-made to suit the harsh conditions of the minerals

processing, mining and petrochemical industries as well as the demands of process applications

involving, food, chemicals, pulp and paper and fertiliser.

MechChem Africa

talks to Danny Lubbe,

the company’s sales manager.

SAMCO CP and CPO chemical process pumps are “our stock in trade”. SAM Engineering can manufacture these in 34 different model sizes with 11 different

material combinations.

Specialist

alloys and custom

Mostnotably,though,theSAMEngineering

name is an acronym of ‘Specialist Alloy

Manufacturer’, which reflects a deliberate

strategy to be as flexible as possible when it

comes to alloy choices andmaterial combina-

tion for the SAMCO pump range.

“Ourmotto is ‘customisedpump solutions’

and we live up to that motto by manufactur-

ing our impellers, volutes, wear plates and

bearing frames in the material or alloy that

best suits the actual application,” Lubbenotes,

adding: “We can offer any combination of

11 standard alloys and we have complete

flexibility with respect to novel materials of

manufacture.

“We were the first company to agree to

manufacture skids, bearing frames and the

power-end of our pumps fromstainless steel.

This is abigno-no fromglobalOEMs, whichall

tend to standardise on their frame materials.

Very fewwill agree to custommanufacturing,”

Lubbe suggests.

“Up in places such as the Copper Belt,

the conditions are often terribly harsh and

pumps fail regularly. By supplying stainless

steel frames and customised wet-end alloys,

our pumps are far better protected, so they

last longer and aremore reliable,” he explains.

“Our wet-ends are manufactured in

all kinds of materials: CD-4 wear plates, a

wear- and corrosion-resistant duplex alloy;

impellers and volutes frommaterials such as

316, duplex and super duplex stainless steels;

or Alloy 20, a nickel-chromium-molybdenum

alloy that is ideal for sulphuric acid applica-

tions. We strive to offer the highest corro-

sion resistance possible for the media being

pumped,” Lubbe advises.

Long serving SAM Engineering clients

include customers such as Tongaat on the

food side and SAPPI, for pulp and paper. “For

pumping pulp and liquids with solid content,

weuseopen impellers. Thesehaveno shrouds

on the inlet side so that solids can be easily

dischargedwithout clogging thepump,” Lubbe

tells

MechChem Africa