Water technology firm Xylem reviews pump selection criteria from a recent case study
Day in, day out, Amble Marina is filled with people fishing, racing, cruising or sailing. For the owners at Amble Marina, this means they need to be confident in the reliability of their pumping station at all times and in all weathers.
Located on the banks of the River Coquet in Northumberland, Amble Marina is a family-run business providing visitors with a range of marine-based activities, as well as 250 resident and visitor berths for yachts and boats, owned by those wishing to enjoy the beautiful countryside and sandy beaches of the North-East of England.
The marina office is open seven days a week throughout the year, and needs to ensure that its facilities are well maintained with large volumes of visitors, it is especially important that there is a reliable, fully functioning sewage pumping station.
Pump origins: the 1980s
The original pump within the pumping station was a Flygt 3085, which was installed by Xylem in 1986 alongside a comprehensive maintenance programme. The Flygt pump operated effectively for over 30 years, emphasising the reliability of pumps in its range, while also reinforcing why a regular maintenance programme was essential for pump longevity.
After three decades of successful operation, Xylem’s service team spotted signs of fatigue during a routine maintenance check, and the decision was made to replace the pump. Having been impressed, not only with the quality and longevity of the Flygt technology, but also with Xylem’s maintenance and support over the years, Amble Marina decided to put its trust in Xylem’s expertise once more, investing in its latest technology – the Flygt Concertor, a wastewater pumping system with integrated intelligence.
Grenville Graham, a Service Engineer at Xylem, commented: “Amble Marina is a busy leisure facility. This means the pumps are regularly faced with tackling a variety of mixed materials. Of course, this is to be expected when operating in this kind of public space. The key, therefore, is to ensure you have the technology in place that has been designed with these difficulties in mind. It is for this reason that the Flygt Concertor was the perfect choice for this installation.”
With its built-in capabilities, the Flygt Concertor is capable of handling large amounts of material, adapting to different duty points and automatically adjusting its performance to cope with the changing conditions of the wastewater environment.
Amble Marina’s busiest period often occurs at the weekends and across bank holidays, and it is at these times that the pump can be placed under pressure. Unexpected breakdowns can cause major disruption, but also result in additional expense for the business as the call out charges for engineers during these periods are often higher.
Features of the new pump
The Flygt Concertor features ultra-high efficiency motor and impeller. Further, with Adaptive N-hydraulics, and anti-blockage protocols the pump can also actively detect and prevent potential blockages by running the impeller back and forth repeatedly under controlled conditions until the debris is shifted. This reduces downtime and operator callouts, as the pump will carry out the anti-blockage task up to 22 times before alerting an engineer.
Despite being technologically advanced, the Flygt Concertor is still simple to install. Tracy McIntyre, Service Coordinator at Xylem, says: “For a pumping station like Amble Marina, which is in frequent use, we needed a solution that could be quickly and easily fitted.
“With the Flygt Concertor, the process is simple. For starters, correct rotation is already ensured, meaning there is no need to physically check the rotation of the impeller, which is often both time consuming and tricky to do. It also has a compact footprint, which is ideal for stations with restrictive spaces to navigate.”
Karl Brunton at Amble Marina Ltd concluded: “The Flygt Concertor was installed earlier this year, and we are already reaping the benefits of investing in this advanced technology solution.
“Xylem understands the needs of our business and keeps us confident in the knowledge that we can rely on our assets to perform. For this reason, our longstanding relationship has served us well time and time again, and we look forward to continuing to work with them in the future.”
