Takashi TOKUE
Fluid Machinery & Systems Company
We need the power of pumps to make use of the water that is indispensable to our daily lives. For example, clean water processed at water purification plants is supplied to us using distributing pumps. In office buildings and condominiums, booster pumps and drainage pumps are used. Here we introduce pumps that work behind the familiar scenes of our lives.
Figure 1 shows examples of pumps offered by Ebara’s standard pump business division. We rarely have the opportunity to see these pumps in our daily life. However, pumps are used in various scenes in our daily lives and production facilities such as factories.
The pumps in Figure 1 are used in famous domestic and overseas spots. Here we introduce you to some of these spots.
Fig. 1 Examples of standard pumps
◆Roppongi Hills Mori Tower
The Mori Tower (Figure 2), which is a symbol of Roppongi Hills, is a 54-story, super high rise office complex 238 m in height.
In this building, more than 100 Ebara pumps of various types are operating [Figure 1 (a) and (b)]. The pumps are used for two major purposes: to provide tap water for drinking and sanitation, and to provide hot and cold water for air conditioning to regulate temperatures inside the building. The pumps operate 24 hours to provide for the comfort of visitors and workers and enable constant temperature control for the IT equipment.
Regular maintenance of the pumps is performed by Ebara. Wear status is checked and consumable parts are exchanged as necessary. These efforts ensure safety and security in the building every day.
Fig. 2 Roppongi Hills Mori Tower
◆Colosseum (in Italy)
In the restoration project of the ancient Roman Colosseum (Figure 3) carried out in 2013, a booster set of the vertical multi-stage pump model EVMG [Figure 1 (c)], was used as a high pressure jet pump to clean the outer walls. This full-scale restoration was the first major work done on the Colosseum since 1939. Instead of merely cleaning the surface, the pump applied high pressure water to wash away the dirt that had accumulated for many years on the rough surfaces of the walls. This work restored the natural color of the outer walls.
This pump, which was delivered to a contractor specializing in architectural design and restoration work for ruins, has been used for cleaning various World Heritage sites in Italy since completion of the restoration work at the Colosseum.
Fig. 3 Colosseum
◆Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium
Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium (Figure 4), located in the Ocean Expo Park of Okinawa Commemorative National Park Region, boasts a total water tank capacity of approximately 10000 m3 . The aquarium includes an impressive total of 77 exhibition tanks, including the world’s largest “Kuroshio Sea” gigantic tank (with a capacity of 7500 m3 ), providing ample swimming space for whale sharks as long as 8.7 m, manta alfredi, one of the largest species of ray, and a wide variety of other fish, and the “Coral Sea” tank (with a capacity of 300 m3 ) bathed in natural light cultivating and exhibiting about 70 species and 800 colonies of coral.
To reproduce the sea around Okinawa in these tanks, a supply of fresh sea water is indispensable. Also, in an environment where living things are handled, equipment such as pumps requires high reliability because its failure can be fatal.To ensure the necessary reliability, more than 45 units of the plastic centrifugal pump, Model FPS (Figure 1 (d), Figure 5), are used for circulation and supply of seawater in the tanks. This plastic centrifugal pump uses thermosetting resin with particularly excellent corrosion resistance against liquids that erode stainless steel, such as acid or seawater. In addition, since the pump is not reinforced with glass fiber, it can be incinerated, making it environmentally friendly.
Thus, Ebara standard pumps play active roles in scenes throughout the world.
Fig. 4 Okinawa Commemorative National Park (Ocean Expo Park): Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium
Fig. 5 Plastic centrifugal pump (model FPS) operating in Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium
This section introduces main applications of Ebara standard pumps.
(1) Pumps for building facilities
In building facilities such as office buildings or condominiums, various types of pumps are operating as shown in Figure 6.
1) For sanitation
The “Booster Pump Unit” operates to increase water pressure, if the pressure of waterworks is too low to supply water to high places, and to optimize supply water pressure by controlling the rotation speed of the pump to prevent the water pressure from being lowered by simultaneous use of water.
Other than this, the “Hot Water Supply Pump” provides an instant supply of hot water for bathing, washing and cooking, and “Submersible Pumps for Draining Sewage, Wastewater and Filth” pump toilet sewage, rainwater, etc., to the sewer.
2) For air conditioning
In large buildings, central air conditioning systems control the temperature, humidity, cleanliness, etc. of the air of entire buildings. “Cold or Hot Water Pumps” send cold or hot water produced by refrigerators or boilers to air conditioners to produce cool or warm air.
3) For fire extinguishing
The “Fire Pump Unit”, which sends water to fire extinguishing facilities, is installed to pump water to put out small fires in buildings. The Fire Service Act requires that the pump unit be installed in buildings of a certain size. Fire extinguishing facilities include sprinkler systems, indoor and outdoor fire hydrant facilities, foam fire extinguish systems, and water spray systems.
(2) Pumps for water supply and sewerage system
“Water Intake Pumps” pump water from water sources such as rivers to water purification plants (Figure 7). Pumps are indispensable for pumping water. “Distributing pumps” propel water from water purification plants to households up to tens of kilometers away by applying pressure to water.
In addition to these, “Sewage Relay Pumps” send used water to sewage treatment plants, and “Sewage Pumps” are used in sewage treatment plants.
(3) Industrial Pumps
Ebara supplies a variety of pumps used in utilities that provide and circulate chemicals and cooling water in factories and other production facilities. For smallscale power generation (in waste incineration facilities, etc.), “Boiler Feed Pumps” send high pressure water to boilers. Unlike pumps for water supply and sewerage systems and for building facilities, industrial pumps handle a wide variety of liquids. As the properties such as specific gravity or viscosity vary depending on the type of liquid, it is necessary to select an optimum pump for each property.
Besides the applications of pumps introduced here, a wide variety of pumps are required depending on the handled liquid, pressure, flow rate, and installation method. For such wide varieties of applications, Ebara offers a wide selection of standard pumps, which can be picked up from the catalogs or hand books as standard products (existing products).
Fig. 6 Building facilities and equipment
Fig. 7 Water and sewage facilities
Standard pumps have advanced from the motor direct connection type to directly operated type and from the 4-pole induction motor type to 2-pole motor type, and have increasingly employed inverters and permanent magnet synchronous motors (PM motors), successfully advancing in speed, compactness, and cost reduction. In recent years, the pump needs have diversified day by day due to the introduction of IoT and ICT technologies.
Having focused its research and development on the fluid dynamics field for over 100 years, Ebara owns a number of advanced techniques, including hydraulic design technique that realizes world-class efficiency and performance using flow analysis, three-dimensional inverse solution and other methods (Figure 8).In recent years, Ebara has designed its own impeller shape that reduces shaft thrust load, while improving pump efficiency and performance (Figure 9).Ebara also owns a variety of its original technologies in the mechatronics field, such as the miniaturization technology represented by the PM canned motor achieved through advanced magnetic field analysis (Figure 10), as well as control technology optimized by sensor controllers that provides energy savings and a comfortable operating environment.By integrating these technologies at a high level, Ebara satisfies a variety of market needs with a wide range of products from individual pumps to system equipment.
Fig. 8 Flow analysis inside pump
Fig. 9 Ebara original impeller shape
Fig. 10 PM motor magnetic field analysis
In the medium-term management plan “E-Plan 2019” ending in fiscal year 2019, the standard pump business is positioned as a profit base for the global pump business, given that the business is less susceptible to fluctuations in the global market. Based on improvements in profitability through structural reform of domestic businesses, we aim to grow in the global market, and set our basic policies as follows.
1) We will continue to eliminate and integrate extant models, and reduce administrative costs, while at the same time shorten product lead time and reduce manufacturing costs.
2) We will fundamentally revise the conventional production system. By establishing an automated production line through the utilization of IoT, AI and robotics as well as shortening product lead time and reducing manufacturing costs, we will strengthen product competitiveness.
3) We will fundamentally change the business systems of production and sales and enhance operational efficiency.
4) We will continuously launch new products that will be sold globally as well as new products that reflect specific regional needs.
To achieve these policies, we will develop global core products and regional products tailored to customer needs in each region, and constantly renovate operations by reviewing production, manufacturing, and assembly methods to build automated production lines, and by introducing Salesforce* and RPA (Robotic Process Automation: Automation of operations by robots) and other systems.
*Salesforce is a cloud-based customer management and sales support system and is a trademark of Salesforce.com, Inc.
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