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PUMPS & PIPING Designed to Cut Internal Recirculation Victaulic says that installing its couplings is quick and easy, using standard tools. Another benefit of Victaulic grooved products is the ease in rerouting and expanding piping systems, the company says. Where piping systems need to be repositioned and extended, the ability to disassemble and reassemble piping components quickly and easily means that system retrofits and expansions can be completed fast. Victaulic products include its original groove system, introduced in the 1920s, the advance groove system, and the VicRing system for large-diameter slurry and tailings lines, as well as high-pressure and fire-protection systems. The company reports that its products are now in use at De Beers' Snap Lake operation in northern Canada on dewatering, water, compressed air and slurry pipelines. Underground, the mine uses installationready Style 177 flexible couplings that greatly reduce the risk of pinched gaskets— compressed air leaks can cost thousands of dollars a year in additional energy costs. In the process plant, rigid and flexible advanced groove system couplings are used on abrasive slurry pipelines, using the Victaulic Vic-Ring piping method to maintain the full pipe-wall thickness. In Australia, meanwhile, a recently installed conveyor structure at Rio Tinto's Tom Price mine has been equipped with Victaulic FireLock products on its 6 in. and 72 E&MJ; • APRIL 2013 8 in. (152- and 203-mm) fire-protection pipelines. The company notes that these were chosen to provide an approved rigid joint that could be installed easily without the need for on-site welding. It also helped minimize the time that the installation crews spent exposed to the extreme outdoor heat conditions of the Pilbara. A member of the FLSmidth group since 2007, FLSmidth Krebs is a major world supplier of hydrocyclones, centrifugal slurry pumps and knife-gate valves. FLSmidth offers its millMAX pump range of centrifugal slurry pumps in sizes from 2- to 34-in. (51- to 864-mm) suction diameters. The company says the millMAX pump has a unique patented design developed exclusively for mill discharge duties and adapted for other severe abrasive slurries. The same wet-end components can be offered as a conversion kit to existing pumps, without the need to disturb the foundation or existing bearing frame assembly. Within the millMAX product family there is a wide range of designs, including rubber lined, dredging, vertical, high-head and high-pressure pumps. With the exception of the vertical pumps, all have a patented millMAX adjustable suction-side sealing system. This stops suction-side recirculation within the pump, while maintaining a large gap between the suction liner and the impeller. Adjustments to this system can be made while the pump is running to ensure continued consistent performance through the life of the pump, the company adds. Conventional pumps reduce suction-side recirculation by adjusting the suction liner and impeller closer together. However, FLSmidth's millMAX centrifugal slurry pumps feature a patented adjustable suction-side sealing system. www.e-mj.com