Hydraulic ram pumps and Sling Pumps

D WATER RESOURCES AND USE: SKINNERAdvantagesStandardising on the use of only corrosion resistantmaterials reduces the stocks of spares needed because nonon-corrosion resistant spares are required. Also, themaintenance task of replacing corroded rods and pipeswill become unnecessary, avoiding the cost of the vehiclewhich is needed to bring these long items to site. The useof non-corrosive materials also has the advantage ofeliminating the problem of bad taste which can resultfrom corrosion products in the water.Standardising on open-top cylindersDeepwell reciprocating piston pumps designed with opentopcylinders (OTCs) use a rising main with a slightlylarger internal diameter than the cylinder. The rod andpiston can therefore be withdrawn through the water inthe rising main without the need to remove any pipes.This is a very much easier task than lifting the weight ofthe whole length of the water-filled pipe, the operatingrod it contains, and removing sections one by one. Gooddesigns of OTC also allow the footvalve at the bottom ofthe cylinder to be withdrawn through the rising main.This is clearly a major advantage since the rising main willnever need to be lifted during maintenance. This makes itfeasible to use PVCu plastic rising main with solventcementedspigot and socket joints (as used in the Afridev)or solvent cemented couplings. Such joints are muchcheaper than screwed joints. A rope connection frombelow the cylinder to the pumphead (as in the Afridev)will guard against the loss of pipework should a cementedjoint fail.Sharing spares between deepwell anddirect action handpumpsIf, despite the contrary arguments already presented,there are advantages to standardising on both a directaction and a deepwell pump it may be possible to standardiseon a pump of each type that share many of the samespares. This is not as attractive as it first sounds becausemany parts will still need to be totally different, but atleast some the main wearing parts such as the piston sealsand both the valves can be identical.The Nira AF2000 (a deepwell pump) and the Nira AF85(a direct action pump) already use the same piston,footvalve, and rising main. However, the pumphead,handle, operating rod (an air filled pipe rather than thesteel rod) and other parts of the Nira AF85 are different tothose of the Nira 2000.Identical plastic mouldings and rubber poppet valvesare already used for the piston and footvalve in thenormal deepwell Afridev pump since this reduces manufacturingcosts and allows the use of identical spares.People in a number of countries, including Malawi, haveworked on the production of a direct-action handpumpwhich uses the Afridev piston, footvalve and deepwellcylinder. The field testing of prototypes has not yet finished.Fitting standard parts to existing pumpsThe commonest type of deepwell handpump is the reciprocatingpiston pump. In this type of pump the cylinder ispositioned at the bottom of the rising main. It pumps waterwhen the rod in the rising main causes the piston in thecylinder to move up and down. For a particular cylinder itdoes not matter what type of pumphead is used to providethe reciprocating movement as long as:• The movement of the piston does not exceed the limitsof the cylinder (allowing for dynamic and long-termchanges in the length of plastic rising mains whereappropriate).• Sufficient force can be applied for the size of the piston.• The discharge rate of the pump will not, in the opinionof the users, be adversely affected by any reduction inthe length of the piston stroke which results from adifferent pumphead being used.Thus it is possible to adapt some deepwell reciprocatingpumps already installed by using parts of a new standardpump. This can be used as an interim measure beforecomplete standardisation comes into force.Hence it should usually be possible to connect a newpumphead to an existing rising main and rods. Likewisenew standardised rods could replace existing rods (althoughpipe or rod adapters will be needed where theexisting and standardised pump do not have compatiblejoints).In a similar way an existing pumphead may be retainedand a new standard rising main, rods and cylinder can befitted. However, if the new cylinder is smaller in diameterthan the existing one, users will have to be willing to accepta lower discharge rate.Changing just parts of existing pumps could make avaluable contribution to reducing the capital cost of thetransition to a new standard pump.Fitting standard pumps to existingboreholesWhere the standard pumpstand needs to be bolted downonto a concrete apron slab its baseplate may not have holespacing to suit the bolts already at the borehole. There arefour ways to overcome this problem:• If there is space, additional holes can be drilled in thebaseplate to suit the existing holding down bolts. If itis done after manufacture the holes need protectingwith corrosion resistant paint.• An adapter with two drilled flanges separated by apiece of large diameter pipe can be manufactured toconvert to the required bolt spacing.• The old bolts can be cut off and new bolts can be fixed(using resin based glue) into holes drilled into theconcrete.• The apron slab can be reconstructed.Where an existing pump pedestal is cast-in (as is the casefor the India Mark II and III pumps) it may be possible to210