Press Release: GIW Pump Provides Continuous Service for 52 Years

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

Media contact:
Pam Welty, Brand Manager
GIW Industries, Inc.
706-863-1011
PWelty@giwindustries.com

GIW Pump Provides Continuous Service for 52 Years
In operation at the Noranda Alumina Plant since 1959, the LSA model pump has required only routine maintenance.

GROVETOWN, Ga. (August 26, 2011) — GIW Industries, the leader in the design, manufacture and application of heavy duty, centrifugal slurry pumps, announced that an LSA model pump installed at the Noranda Alumina Plant in Gramercy, La., has operated continuously with only routine maintenance for 52 years.

Operating in the dirtiest conditions
Installed at the plant startup in 1959, the LSA pump operates on the plant’s press floor turnback area, handling bauxite mud slurry at a specific gravity of 1.25 and temperature of 125 degrees Fahrenheit. The slurry is fed to the pump from a tank that receives excess mud, caustic liquor and dilution water from the filter press that dewaters mud for disposal. The pump recirculates excess material to a mud settler tank located approximately 200 yards away.

Conley Jones, senior reliability engineer at the Noranda plant, notes that these have been some of the most reliable pumps in the plant.

"The mud that is fed to the filter press floor must be removed from the process continuously, in order to separate it from the process, which then proceeds to send the caustic liquor containing the dissolved alumina to the precipitation area for further processing," says Jones.

This repetitive process is key to producing solid alumina crystals — the raw material needed for smelting aluminum.

Working together for optimum efficiency
GIW pumps have been in service throughout the Noranda Alumina Plant in Gramercy, La., since the plant started operations in early 1959. With a total of more than 150 working units in the plant, GIW pumps handle the hot, abrasive slurries as they are moved from the milling and slurry mix areas to the digesters. Then the pumps move the slurries through the processes of mud separation and filtering, precipitation and calcinations to create the finished dry alumina product.

David S. Pratt, president of GIW partner Hunter Equipment Company, Inc., says, "GIW pumps have proven to be a vital part of this plant's success as one of the most efficient alumina plants in the industry. The high chrome alloys used in the GIW pump line provide excellent abrasion resistance and long life cycles in severe duties and provide the plant with reliable performance and lower maintenance costs than other brands of pumps."

About GIW Industries
GIW Industries began as a small foundry and machine shop in Augusta, Ga., in 1891. In 1914, GIW began building slurry pumps. Today, the company comprises two manufacturing facilities, one in Grovetown, Ga., and the other in Thomson, Ga. These foundries and machine shops are used for manufacturing and assembling pumps and for casting a variety of abrasion-resistant alloys and urethane elastomers. As a subsidiary of KSB AG of Germany, a global pump and valve manufacturer, GIW has the infrastructure to supply pumps worldwide. KSB has presence in 100 countries with sales organizations, offices and 30 manufacturing sites.