Large numbers of solid objects are often found in unmaintained process water or return water ponds, which can be a real hindrance when those ponds need to be dredged; but this is no longer a problem, with Integrated Pump Rental’s newly designed dredge head on its SlurrySucker Mark II.

“In some of our dredging jobs, we have encountered a range of solids in the dams – from plastic gloves and boots to hessian bags and other plastic objects – which would cause the dredge to block up, stopping work and slowing down the dredging process,” says Lee Vine, managing director at Integrated Pump Rental. “This alerted us to the need for a higher capacity solids handling dredge head.”

The new Mark II design incorporates the use of a vortex type impeller in the slurry pump, so that the unit can handle solids up to 76 mm through the impeller. This includes strand-like material such as hessian and plastic bags. The new dredge head allows solids up to 76 mm in size to be pulled in with the sediment and passed through the system without creating blockages.

By comparison, the original SlurrySucker Mark I design has sixteen 32 mm holes through which the silt enters the pump. The new Mark II unit still uses water to agitate the solids, and does not have cutters that could damage the pond liner.

“We have a dewatering pump located on the dam surface which feeds the dredge head through 16 nozzles with 7 bar pressure, enabling the water to ‘cut up’ the solids so that it can be sucked away,” he says.

The SlurrySucker is designed for dredging mine ponds and process water ponds with dimensions of up to 150 metres by 150 metres and with depths of about six metres. He notes, however, that a new model is currently in design that will allow the dredging of larger dams.

Integrated Pump Rental’s innovative dredge units play a valuable role in helping customers in terms of both operational performance and environmental protection.

“The build-up of sediments in process water ponds and other water storage areas, which threatens their water holding capacity, can severely disrupt processes, and this is irrespective of whether it is on a mine or a wastewater plant,” says Vine. “This can also potentially create an environmental hazard, which has seriously implications for an operation’s legal compliance and licence to operate.”

The SlurrySucker is a quick and simple solution to this challenge, and is manufactured using locally produced components. To develop optimal designs, the company made use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for validation, assuring customers that the performance of the SlurrySucker and its engineering integrity are maximised.