CLEAN GREEN MOTORING SMART PLANT PUMP IT UP - Cryostar

PUMP IT UPAnother market subject to a rapid shift in recentyears is Cylinders Filling Stations. Indeed the marketis constantly asking for more precise systems withhigh safety and reliability levels, especially formedical applications. Cryostar Automation, based inCapdenac, France is deeply involved in this move byadapting its product range to fit customer requests.The latest improvements include medical validationand filling by Coriolis Massflow Meter. Updates tothe Supervision System allow complete real timevisualisation of the filling plant with production andmaintenance records from one PC.Cryostar today offers filling systems that coverthe simplest manual unit to the most sophisticatedautomatic units, to meet all types of customers’demands.Process pumpsThe process pump story all really started at the endof the eighties. The big industrial gas companies andtheir engineering departments developed new airseparation unit plants (ASUs), with bigger capacitiesand greater efficiencies. The big gas companiescontacted Cryostar to ask it to developpumps for these new units.Until then, the centrifugal pumps used in these plantshad performances limited to the needs of that time:approximately 800 l/mn with discharge pressures of40 bars maximum.New ASU processes demanded higher dischargepressures and the famous Cryostar 2-stage horizontalpump (CD2/295) could no longer satisfy thesehigh discharge pressure needs.It was time to re-think the whole technical approachand design for this product. The philosophyof a horizontal pump with a mechanical seal as itssealing device and a gearbox allowing higher speedand pressure, was no longer adapted to the client’srequirement and specifications.The need for higher discharge pressure led Cryostarto develop vertical multi stage pumps.Customer specifications also requested that pumpsshould be able to work at least 8000 hours continuallybetween maintenances and to be permanentlymaintained cold to assure instant start up as well ashave a net positive section head required (NPSHR)as low as possible, and also entirely comply withIGC code (Industrial Gas Comity 11/82).The industrial gases industry also started to consideroperation and maintenance costs (OPEX operationalexpenditure). Cryostar needed to include these elementsin its pump design. From all these compliedelements resulted the design of the famous VP (verticalpump) multi stage pump.4Spring 2009