Xylem’s Godwin HL270 pump is helping quarries keep water out.
When digging a hole on a quarrying operation, there will eventually come a time where it will start to fill with water. And the larger the hole, the more likely the water is to get in.
This is especially relevant when the depth of a hole goes beyond the water table – where ground water resides. This situation creates a constant battle, as rain filters through the soil and flows down into the pit.
This poses a particular problem for quarries. When there is excess water at the bottom of a pit, mining for materials becomes difficult, and, in some cases, impossible.
Jordan Thomson-Larkins, product and applications manager for Godwin Pumps in ANZ, told Quarry that when pits reach a certain size, it becomes much more difficult to pump water out. This is because standard pumps often cannot handle the massive static lift required to move water up and out of a deep hole.
“Xylem’s Godwin HL270 unit is the largest pump in the Godwin range,” Thomson-Larkins said. “It is capable of handling extremely high vertical lifts, meaning you can have a deep quarry and pump the water out of it from a single stage.”
“Historically, you would need multiple separate stages to deliver the water out of the quarry one step at a time.”
A two-stage pumping system will often require more equipment, such as baffle tanks, and generally speaking, the more equipment involved with a task, the more complex it will be.
More moving parts means more potential failure points and can make expansion efforts difficult in the long run.
The Godwin HL270 is also very efficient in terms of how much power is required to move significant amounts of water.
It is designed to handle high lift and high flow rates of up to 200 litres per second at 200m.
“Other pumps aren’t designed to handle these duties,” Thomson-Larkins said.
“The Godwin HL270 comes with two seal options: mechanical and gland packed; and multiple material options: duplex as standard.
“Gland-packed pumps have an easier time of managing solids in the water that is being pumped, making it an ideal fit for a quarry.”
This type of pump has been around for some time – almost 150 years, in fact. Godwin itself has been producing reliable pumps for more than a century and has developed a reputation for high quality.
The Godwin HL270 design features a thick casing, with removable front and rear wear plates to make maintenance easier.
“It’s a beast,” Thomson-Larkins said. “It’s a market-leading pump that is tough enough to handle the harsh conditions on a mine or quarry site.”
While diesel pump technology has been around for some time, Godwin has developed methods to make the system more efficient – through hydraulic optimisation. This reduces the amount of energy required, making it more cost effective to run and assisting with decarbonisation efforts.
In addition, the pump can be equipped with the X36 control panel, allowing operators to perform almost any type of monitoring. Pressure, flow, vibration and more can be remotely monitored and fed into telemetry systems to improve operations.
Thomson-Larkins said the Godwin HL270 has been installed across Australia.
“It’s been running excellently. Initially, the customer ordered the pump as a rental unit, but decided to outright purchase it after seeing what it could do,” he said.
“It is a 30.5L pump that operates with a V12 783kW engine at 1800RPM. Overall, it has been a great success. They’re happy with the gland packed seal – it’s easy to maintain and disassemble and handles solids well.”
Xylem has a wide range of brands that specialise in the water market across the world. This allows the company to listen, learn and adapt to local environments, working in partnership with customers and benefiting from a wide knowledge base.
Xylem, whose brands are involved across several sectors, including agriculture, construction, industrial, water utilities, and mining, is able to provide deep application expertise about all things related to water.
The company provides additional support through its service centres.
“We have a facility in all states, and if a customer needs support on-site we have service technicians that can attend and support work where needed,” he said. “Xylem also holds stock locally, which means we can quickly respond if necessary.”
Thomson-Larkins believes the Godwin HL270 pump is likely to become a popular addition to quarries around Australia.
“Ultimately, we foresee quarries going deeper and deeper as they get more efficient. To handle that depth, they will either need to buy several smaller pumps or one big one,” he said.
“Xylem’s Godwin HL270 is tailored for this scenario – and we’re excited to see it deployed as the industry grows.”
For more information, visit xylem.com