OTC Insights Team
Established in 1963, OTC Industrial Technologies is one of the largest industrial distributors & service providers in the United States. We're committed to seeing industrial operations advance through expert technical solutions & unmatched support using our years of experience.
Manufacturing is fueled by innovation.
Want to succeed in manufacturing? Then find a way to do the work faster and deliver a higher-quality product in less time. Make a better product, use less material, and increase efficiency so it takes less labor and makes less waste. That’s what innovation can do for you.
One way that you can increase efficiency is with better-designed tools and equipment. Find a problem with a piece of equipment, a challenge that’s reducing efficiency or causing excessive downtime and repairs, and then fix it to deliver manufacturing success.
That’s exactly what Flowserve has done with the Innomag® pump.
What Is the Innomag® Pump?
The biggest problems with any pump are the shaft seals and ball bearings. In fact, 80% of all pump failures are caused by a faulty shaft seal or an issue with the ball bearings.
Sealless pumps address these issues by reducing the stress and factors that cause shaft seals and ball bearings to fail. But most sealless pumps struggle with process lubrication. These pumps correct the biggest challenge of most pumps, shaft seals and ball bearings, but create another problem — lubrication.
Innomag® pumps are sealless, and an innovative thrust-balanced design addresses the dependency on process lubrication. This design reduces dependency on process lubrication by as much as 90% compared to other pumps using the traditional thrust-forward design.
The pump is hermetically sealed, which almost entirely eliminates leaks. This sealing is cleaner for operators and safer for the environment. As a bonus, Innomag® pumps are more efficient, using 10% to 46% less energy than other sealless pumps.
It’s an innovative design using patented technology that gives manufacturers a more reliable sealless pump. It’s the only sealless pump on the market that can handle significant solids. An Innomag® pump is reliable up to 30% solid concentration by volume and up to ¼-inch particle size.
Common Uses for Innomag® Pumps
Now that you have an idea of how the innovative Innomag® pump works, let’s see how OTC customers are using it. We’ve collected some common uses for the pump:
Chemical Process Industries (CPI)
Using chemicals in manufacturing is dangerous for operators and can be extremely damaging to pumps. Sealless pumps are common in chemical process industries, but before Innomag®, these pumps were inefficient, and downtime was frequent.
Innomag® is changing that and is used with acids like HCl, nitric acid, phosphoric, chlorosulfonic, acetic, chromic, sulfuric, and hydrofluoric. It also works with alkalis like sodium and potassium, hydroxides, caustic soda, sodium hypochlorite, methyl chloroform, methyl ethyl ketone, freon, butane, propane, benzene, tolune, ferric chloride, heptane, chlorine, and siloxanes.
Chemical Blending and Distribution Industries
For similar reasons, the caustic nature of chemicals and the risk to operators, sealless pumps are also common in chemical blending industries. Innomag® adds efficiency, reduces costs, and eliminates common risks for these manufacturers.
For the manufacturers we work with, the pump is used in chemical blending with the following materials: bleach, sulfuric acid, sodium hydroxide, sodium bisulfites, HCl, hydrogen peroxide, and aluminum chloride.
Metals Manufacturing
Caustic chemicals are used in the metals industry. This makes it another area where Innomag® provides clear benefits. OTC customers currently use Innomag® for pumping and managing hydrochloric acid, and chrome- and nickel-based agents.
Fertilizer Production
Fertilizer production and manufacturing is another potentially dangerous industry. The pump can handle many of the dangerous caustic materials common in fertilizer production – such as chemicals like ammonia, nitrogen, and aluminum chloride.
Corn Wet Milling
Corn wet milling separates the components in corn to make animal feed and other products. It’s a complex process that is aided by the Innomag® pump. Chemicals handled in corn wet milling by the pump include sodium hydroxide, HCl, sodium bisulfites, acetic anhydride, bleach, and oxinated water.
Boost Your Production Efficiency with Innomag® Pumps
Other industries that use Innomag® pumps include industrial waste chemical treatment, municipal water treatment, tank car loading or unloading operations, reactor feed, refineries, plastics manufacturing, mining fluids, battery production, and microchip cleansing.
If you’re interested in learning more about Innomag® pumps or have questions about their application for your production processes, contact the OTC Industrial Technologies team. We’re an end-to-end solution provider delivering innovative ideas, best-in-class service, and equipment for some of the most demanding manufacturing applications — including the latest pumps from Flowserve.
Contact us today to learn more.
