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Pumping Difficult to Handle Liquids with Wanner Hydra-Cell Pro® Pumps
A lot of the work we do is not high pressure. It is dirty, viscous, non-lubricating or hazardous liquid, and the sealless Wanner Hydra-Cell Pro® is what gets specified. The line will run from 30 to 5,000 PSI. Most of these jobs sit at the lower end. This article covers those duties, where the design beats packing and close-clearance pumps, and what to watch when you size and pipe the unit.
Call 908.362.9981
or submit a Hydra-Cell Pro inquiry
A Hydra-Cell Pro® is a positive-displacement pump with no mechanical seal, packing, or other dynamic barrier between the liquid and the room. Each shaft turn moves a fixed volume. Discharge pressure is whatever that volume meets downstream. Flow follows RPM. The hydraulically balanced diaphragm is what separates this pump from progressing-cavity, gear, vane, lobe, air-operated diaphragm and peristaltic designs. Most of those either chew on solids at a tight clearance, need the process liquid to cool and lubricate the mechanism, or will not hold high pressure on continuous duty.
Simplicity of Design
A lot of pumps were built for one liquid. Hydra-Cell Pro pumps were built to cut how often you work on them, how hard that work is, and what it costs. That is why the same frame shows up on so many “hard to pump” liquids.
Liquids Containing Particles
Maximum particle size is set by how far the check valves open. Those valves keep flow going inlet to outlet. Piston, plunger and AODD pumps use the same idea. Progressing-cavity, gear, vane, lobe and peristaltic pumps make the restriction with the mechanism itself. Tight clearances on PC, gear, vane and lobe pumps wear, or you open them up and lose efficiency. Peristaltic and AODD pumps stay in the low-pressure range. They do give more suction lift, larger free passage and higher viscosity than a Hydra-Cell Pro.
Pumping Slurries
A high solids load is a slurry. Hydra-Cell Pro pumps handle non-precipitating slurries up to about 25%. That is past where a PC, gear, vane or lobe pump still pumps efficiently. Peristaltic pumps are strong on slurry because they will pass large diameter and long solids without grinding them.
Almost any reclaimed or recycled stream carries solids. The check-valve wet end often lets you run coarser filtration. Piston and plunger pumps have similar valves, but they also have a packing or seal with a very tight gap. Their manuals often call for 25-micron filtration to protect that seal. A Hydra-Cell Pro has no such seal, so particles larger than 25 micron are not a reliability tax. Coarser media costs less and you change it less often.
Viscous Liquids
Some mechanisms like viscosity more than others. Peristaltic pumps do well. PC, gear, vane and lobe pumps gain efficiency on viscous liquid and like a lubricating film. Hydra-Cell Pro pumps will take viscosities up to 1,100 cps (about 5,200 SSU). What they add on that duty is no mechanical seal and the ability to carry solids with the viscous liquid.
Non-Newtonian fluids change viscosity with shear. At low pressure people often use a centrifugal. A Hydra-Cell Pro has a short, high-frequency stroke and will move sauces (ketchup), bentonite and paper/pulp slurry without the solids and viscosity limits of a centrifugal.
Non-Lubricating Liquids
Thin liquids — water, fuel, solvents, liquefied gases, surfactants — starve close-clearance pumps of film. Slip then climbs fast as pressure rises. Centrifugals handle those fluids at modest head. When the job needs higher discharge pressure, people move to a PD pump. Check-valve flow control holds volumetric efficiency better than a PC, gear, vane or lobe set. Centrifugals are also a poor fit for chemical metering: low flow, steady rate, changing pressure.
Hazardous Liquids
Hazard can mean temperature, chemistry, toxicity or environmental risk. Those jobs want a simple machine with few leak paths and little reason for someone to stand over it. The only Hydra-Cell Pro parts in the liquid are the check valves and the elastomers. That wet end runs from about 15°F to 250°F. Fewer parts also means more material choices: Hastelloy and ceramic valves for aggressive chemistry, stainless alloys or tungsten carbide for abrasion.
No mechanical seal cuts fugitive emissions. Packing and seals on piston, plunger, PC, gear, vane and lobe pumps wear and then leak.
Pump Sizing and Piping
Hydra-Cell Pro pumps will lift, so they can fit some low-NPSHa layouts. Still put the pump as close to the tank as you can. On a pressure-fed inlet, oversize the suction pipe to cut turbulence. Cavitation and a closed suction will not wreck the hydraulic end, but the pump only displaces well when the chamber is full.
Solids and viscous liquid usually want a slower stroke — “oversizing” the pump. Lower speed and a larger internal path cut wear on the valves and make it easier for the liquid to fill the head.
The pump is not magic. It competes across several design families because the wet end is simple and sealless. Difficult-liquid jobs have more than one constraint. Call or email the duty. We usually send a proposal or a better-fit alternative the same day.