5 Lessons Learned in Slurry Pump Piping Design

Getting the design right for the pipework connecting to your pumps is so important. Leaks, noise, vibration, and pipe misalignment are just some of the problems you’ll face in your plant if you get it wrong.

In our experience, there’s a simple way to resolve all these pump issues—stop using rigid steel spools. Don’t just take our word for it though—there are five good reasons to think about mining hose reducers over rigid spools.

1. Alignment is easier with flexibility

We see a lot of mineral process plants still using rubber-lined spools in their slurry pump piping. Typically, a straight spool is connected to a reducer spool, which is secured to the pump with a flexible coupling.

Standard rubber-lined steel spool arrangement

While this system works fine, it does have a drawback—it’s difficult to achieve good alignment between the spools, putting more pressure on the coupling to achieve a tight seal.

In this arrangement, the lining around the join wears quicker than other areas of the pipe because of turbulence. This gouges localised wear spots and the pipes leak.

This issue can be solved with a mining hose reducer. The key advantage of using this over rigid pipe is its flexibility and high range of axial, angular, lateral, and tortional deflection. That means if there’s pipe misalignment, you can stretch, compress, and rotate the hose to bolt it onto the pump.

One-piece mining hose reducer

2. Reduce vibration and noise to increase pump lifespan

When a pump sends noise and vibration along the pipe, a rigid steel spool will magnify this and send it back to the pump, creating a noise and vibration feedback loop between the two. This ultimately reduces the lifespan of both the piping and the pump.

While rubber lining reduces some of the noise and vibration, it only partially dampens it, and it still behaves like a rigid steel spool.

The opposite is true with mining hose. The entire carcass of the hose absorbs vibration and spreads it across the length of the hose, and reduces the impact from turbulent slurry coming through the pump. This lowers stress on equipment on either side, and noise for operators.

3. More give for longer wear-life

You want to know that your pipework will be easy to maintain.

With steel spools, you’re limited to ASME 36.1 standard sizes. And unless you’re using a cast liner like polyurethane or ceramic epoxy, you’re also limited to standard rubber thicknesses, like 6mm or 12mm. This compromises the internal diameter and liner thickness which can mean the spool has a shorter lifespan. Mining hose, on the other hand, is built from the inside out, so you can increase the liner thickness.

Mining hose also provides more ‘give’ than rigid pipe. This means when hard and fast slurry hits the pipe wall, particles are deflected rather than absorbed, so you end up with substantially increased wear performance compared to a rigid lined-pipe bend.

One of our gold mining customers in the Northern Territory had this problem in their process plant recently.

Their existing rubber-lined pipe and flexible coupling set-up wasn’t lasting to scheduled shutdowns due to wear on the flanges and at the coupling join.

After swapping to reducer mining hose, they’ve found the hoses are lasting twice as long as the rubber-lined spools.

We talk more about that story here.

4. Easy installation matters

One of the biggest advantages of mining hose over steel spools its ease of installation and removal for scheduled pump repairs.

One mining hose replaces two pipe spools, with a wrap-around coupling. This means you’re fitting or removing one—not three—items, saving time and labour.

Hoses are also lighter than lined steel spools and generally don’t need specialist lifting equipment to install or remove.

5. Custom build to optimise pump performance

Another advantage of mining hose over rigid spools is how customisable it is.

You’re not limited to standard pipe sizes or liners, so you can ensure piping fits together perfectly. It’s the best option when you need to bore match your piping to reduce excessive wear and tear on connecting pumps and pipes.

Mining hose is built from the inside out, so there’s lot of different options to help optimise your pump’s performance.  It can be built to suit a wide range of dimensions and applications. That includes concentric or eccentric reducers, ceramic-lining, high temperature or corrosive resistant liners. There’s also the option to add in flushing ports or wear monitors to help keep your pump maintenance program on track.

Design better now, reduce headaches later

If you’re looking for ways to optimise your slurry piping system, consider using mining hose reducers in combination with lined pipe, in suction and discharge pipe arrangements. It will deliver a better system—and mean less work for you too.