Metering pumps - frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Q: What pumped venturi injector capacities are available in ChemIndustrial's product line?
A: Each injection line can be

• 0 - 15 gallons per hour
• 0 - 60 gallons per hour
• 0 - 160 gallons per hour
• 0 - 400 gallons per hour

Q: How many separate injection lines are available on a single metering pump?
A: Standard multiflow pumps are available for 1, 2, 3 or 4 injection streams.

Q: On multiflow pumps, do all of the streams need to inject the same fluid?
A: No. Each stream can either be the same or different from the others.

Q: On multiflow pumps, do all of the streams need to be the same capacity?
A: No. Capacities can be mixed and matched for maximum flexibility.

Q: What happens when a customer needs more than 4 injection streams?
A: Usually the answer is to divide the metering tasks among two or more pump units.

Q: What is the capacity range of ChemIndustrial's metering pump models?
A: Smallest: The smallest standard model is a single stream 0 to 15 gph injector. A: Largest: The largest standard model is a 0 to 1600 gph multiflow injector consisting of 4 streams each able to deliver 0 to 400 gph.

Specials are available to satisfy even higher capacity requirements.

Q: Wow! You must have hundreds of standard models.
A: Yes. Thousands actually. Many of the most popular models are in stock ready to ship. Other models are usually quickly assembled from in-stock subassemblies.

Q: What control options are available?
A:

• Interface to owner's automation system
• On-board timers
• On-board computer system
• Networked automation to coordinate several skids
• Central control station to operate a multiple-skid installation
• Link to a PC for recipe handling and record keeping

...and of course we can provide complete manual systems.

Q: What about chemical tanks?
A: ChemIndustrial offers a wide range of polyethylene storage tanks, holding tanks, surge tanks and day tanks to supply liquids to and receive the metered output from metering pump systems. We also offer mix tanks.

Q: What other metering pump goodies does ChemIndustrial offer?
A:

• Trailer-mounted chemical feed systems
• Portable metering pumps
• Timer-based chemical feed systems
• Proportional (flow-following) metering pumps

Q: What are the differences between metering pump systems and blending/batching systems?
A: In general, the differences are...

• blending and batching systems are made up of several individual ChemIndustrial metering pumps linked by a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) control system.
• most metering pump systems involve a single metered stream whereas blending/batching systems usually involve multiple metered streams.
• multiple stream metering pump systems don't necessarily require any interaction among the streams. Blending/batching always involves a significant amount of interaction among several streams.

Q: Are there any applications where pumped venturi injection is clearly the wrong choice?
A: Yes. There are several situations:

• Dirty fluids: Heavy suspended solids loadings in the motive fluid can be a problem -- potentially plugging clearances in the pump or venturis and causing rapid wear on the centrifugal pump. ChemIndustrial can provide strainers, filters or Hydroclones to remove solids, but doing so is often inappropriate for the whole process.
• Very high pipeline pressure: We limit our pumped venturi injector offerings to systems where the motive liquid is at or below 150 psi. Standard products generally inject into pressures at or below 100 psi (check with a ChemIndustrial engineer for pressure specs of specific models if you have a line pressure near these limits.