HOW ULTRA HIGH PRESSURE PUMPS ARE MADE...
Steve Cobbett, one of Kerrick’s Regional Managers was recently given a comprehensive tour of the Hughes Pumps manufacturing facility in West Sussex, UK by the Hughes Pumps Managing Director, Phil Cranford.
Hughes has extensive experience in the design and manufacture of high pressure, positive displacement pumps and water jetting equipment for a variety of industries.
They have recently installed a Mazak 6800 Horizontal Machining Centre which will dramatically increase their production output.
Steve was fortunate enough to see a number of different pumps in various stages of manufacturing. On inspecting the high pressure pump blocks being assembled he was struck by how similar the bottom end of the pump resembled a combustion engine block, with the smallest pump having at least four bearings to support the crank and the larger pumps having up to six bearings.
An attribute unique to Hughes pumps, is that the pumps are coupled to a gear box with an engine adaptor housing. Enabling the pump to flange mount to most diesel engine means no belts, no mess and a nice compact unit that’s easy to assemble.
Steve noted that the pressurised oil feed with sensors to monitor oil pressure, temperature etc are visible on the blocks. Also the pump heads are manufactured from duplex stainless steel, while the seals and valves are inserted with the solid ceramic plungers. Each pump is built from scratch by one technician, from start through to completion, and once completed it is run up and tested thoroughly on site at the Hughes test facility. Phil also stated that many of their customers send the pumps back to Hughes to be totally refurbished back to new condition, tested and then returned to the customer.
On touring their parts department Steve found Hughes had a comprehensive range of spare parts to support their pumps at a moment’s notice.
Kerrick represents Hughes Pumps exclusively throughout Australia and New Zealand in a distribution partnership. The recent and successful design, build and commissioning of a mobile surface preparation unit in late 2013 clearly demonstrates the ability of Hughes and Kerrick to work cohesively together to offer flexible designs to our customers.