Investing in pumps modernisation is essential for survival
8 May 2018
It’s a bald reminder to anyone who assesses a product’s overall cost purely on the basis of its price tag that a pump’s initial purchase charge represents just one twentieth of its lifestyle cost.
Yet Grundfos spokesman Rick Child’s statistic should act as an encouragement to those who balk at the expense of updating their pumps for the demands placed on them by 21st century process industries.
Spending upfront – albeit with discrimination – ought to be a guarantee of lower overall life cycle expenditure.
Energy use is by far the biggest cost a pump will generate, with service and maintenance a distant second, though comprising still 10% of the total.
So investing in a product that is energy-efficient will generally provide a better return on investment even if the initial outlay is significantly greater.
The relentless logic of 4.0 makes it impossible for companies to survive without products that allow them to play a continued part in the supply chain
And the likelihood is that, if energy efficiency is boosted, maintenance spending will be favourably influenced downwards.
There is of course a dilemma for small firms that do not operate as economies of scale and survive on much smaller cash reserves and loans access.
The relentless logic of 4.0 industrialisation will make it impossible however for most companies to survive without access to the products and practices that allow them to play a continued part in the supply chain.
Where pumps are concerned that will likely mean greater uptake of more innovative product, such as permanent magnet motor pumps (PMMPs) and smart pumping systems.
Given that so many pumps now in operation are oversized, that a substantial part of their energy use is surplus to requirement, and that pumps account for a large proportion of industrial energy consumption, the drive to greater efficiency has the ring of inevitability about it.
