A chain pump irrigation consists of two large wheels connected by a chain. There are buckets attached to the chain. One part of the chain dips into the water source. As the wheel turns, the bucket picks up water. The chain later lifts them to the upper wheel where the water gets deposited into a source. And the empty bucket gets carried back down.
Pump lifting chains or pump chains are designed with the sole objective of retrieving under water pumps out of their often very deep down, wet location.
So what actually is a submersible pump? Let’s have a look:
A submersible pump is exactly what its title suggests, it is a pump that will pump out water and other liquids from beneath the water level (submersed). They are generally utilised in bore holes, wells, mines, water and sewage areas, industrial and slurry pumping, mining, seawater handling and also fire fighters will utilize them. They can be positioned under water for prolonged durations, and are sometimes permanently left in place in some areas.
Submersible pumps not only need lowering into place but additionally raising out, this tends to frequently be very hard especially if down a deep borehole. A pump chain offers the usually only answer and is intended specifically for this function.
So why are pump chains special?
A pump chain is primarily a chain made with links in the usual way, but they not only possess bigger master links at each end for easier attachment purposes, but additionally at every one metre increment. This is so that the pump may be raised in 1 metre increments by attaching each master link to the hoisting machine progressively.
As submersible pumps are used in remote areas and generally deep underground, for extensive durations the pump lifting chain is also left in situ, because seeing as the pump is beneath water, very deep down, it’ll need to be retrieved at some point for maintenance or extraction. The upper end of the chain will be securely located just below the surface, somewhere where it is simple to reach, to enable it to be attached to a lifting device. Some form of lifting system will definitely be required to lift the pump, to begin with some kind of hoist will be required, this can be a simple chain block, lever hoist or else electric hoist providing power is obtainable; the lifting apparatus will clearly need to suspend from some type of framework in order for it to operate properly, for this kind of application a tripod style structure will be positioned across the pump hole, to which the hoist will be attached. Tripods are utilised seeing that they are able to be moved and erected reasonably easily in isolated and tricky locations. The raising of the pump can be a slow and laborious task, but a required one. Because of the deepness of the pump plus the fairly low height of the tripod the pump cannot be raised in a single action, it needs to be raised in 1 metre intervals which correspond to the master links in the pump lifting chain; this is the only real way to safely raising a pump. A robust bar will also be needed, this is to place over the bore hole in order that it can be pushed through a link to support the pump whilst the master link on the hoist is removed to enable the hoist to be lowered down to the next available link, this will be raised up as far as it will go and the procedure will start again, and repeated until the pump is removed.
Pump lifting chains tend to be available in grade 316 and 80 stainless-steel and also grade 40 high tensile steel, but the stainless steel range tend to be the most popular, this is due to the nature of the atmosphere where they are going to be used; almost always wet, and at times dirty too. Stainless steel has excellent resistance to these environments. To attach the chain to the pump typically used is a stainless steel shackle for the same reasons. The chains are available in an assortment of dimensions, including length along with size of chain, often found with, from 4mm to 26mm chain links, so there will be something to match the majority of tasks.
In conclusion we can verify that pump lifting chains are crucial in the process to lift a submersible pump from its deep, wet location, and should only be acquired through a reputable lifting gear business since they are a specialised piece of lifting equipment and quality is paramount. An inferior product could result in the chain breaking or degrading in its intense conditions, this could result in not having the ability to retrieve the pump at all as a result of inability to find the chain.