Pump Industry Awards Winners Announced
Launched 16 years ago, the Pump Industry Awards are now widely regarded as one of the industry’s most prestigious events. By recognizing and rewarding those companies and individuals that ‘go the extra mile’ and by acting as a motivator to encourage more companies to fulfil their potential, the core values of the awards have not changed over the years.
This year’s Pump Industry Awards Gala Dinner was held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Heythrop Park on Thursday 10th March.
The evening’s celebrations commenced with an ABB-sponsored drinks reception, followed by a delicious 3-course meal. Hosted by BBC Presenter Mary Rhodes, the awards ceremony was the highlight of the evening, and sponsored by World Pumps, KSB, SPP Pumps, AESSEAL, WEG, Tomlinson Hall and Process Industry Informer.
All the finalists were presented with certificates, with the eight worthy winners being awarded with both certificates & trophies.
After dinner entertainment followed with the hilarious Dominic Holland whose performance was extremely well received by the guests. Thank you to Grundfos Pumps, WILO and Xylem for their sponsorship of the entertainment which allowed the booking of such a respected comedian.
Finally, and to round off the proceedings, we held a charity raffle in support of the BPMA’s adopted charity, WaterAid. With prizes generously donated by ABB, AESSEAL, BPMA, Floweserve SIHI, Grundfos Pumps, ITT Goulds Pumps, John Crane, KSB, Process Industry Informer, SPP Pumps, Tomlinson Hall, Touchwave Media, WEG, Wilo and World Pumps, we managed to raise a staggering £1800.00, which after being doubled by the UK Government will provide fresh drinking water for many hundreds of people around the world!
There was then further entertainment and networking in the bar with the ‘not-to-be-missed’ John Crane-sponsored Survivor’s Breakfast being served at 1am and a fun money casino until the early hours.
As always the gala dinner was truly a night to remember and provided those companies in attendance the opportunity to celebrate the success of the PIA finalists and winners, as well as network with peers, colleagues and friends!
Meet the Winners
The 2016 Awards focused on manufacture and supply, including innovation and achievement, energy saving, engineering excellence, customer care and employee motivation.
On the night, six companies and two individuals were awarded, as follows:
Technical Innovation – Products
Sponsored by: Process Industry Informer
Winner: Flowserve SIHI : The SIHIboost
Dramatically faster evacuation down to deep vacuum levels with less power, smaller footprint, quieter, safer, and cleaner by harvesting the Kinetic Energy of heavier rotors which run five-times faster than usual machines. Mass inertia is stored during idle periods and then released immediately when demanded. Game-changing hydraulic optimisation allows pump pressure gradients of one-million-to-one while in the rough pressure area. This is unique and would normally need a high number of pressure stages. Mechatronically synchronised, contact-free, moving parts removes the need for oil-centric lubrication and associated mess. Simple operation and long-term reliability are at the centre of all Flowserve SIHI’s innovative designs.
Technical Innovation – Projects
Sponsored by: KSB
Winner: Neptuno Pumps : energy efficient pumps help fight climate change
Los Pelambres Mining Co., located at 3600 m.a.s.l. in Chile, wanted to increase its pumping capacity, improve its energy efficiency and reuse components from its old equipment. Neptuno Pumps designed and manufactured new pumps under a circular economy approach with recycled materials and 30% less components, which increased the pumping capacity by 5%, using 33% less pumps, while improving energy efficiency by 15.4%, saving US$ 579,033 and reducing 3798 tons of CO2 emissions annually.
Environmental Contribution of the Year
Sponsored by: SPP Pumps
Winner: Bedford Pumps save stakeholders £3m on fish friendly scheme
Bedford Pumps’ Fish Friendly pumps successfully pass eels and fish in compliance with the EU Eel Regulations. Bedford Pumps worked closely with Peter Brett Associates to evolve the civil engineering and pipeline design at Webb’s Hole Pumping Station to carefully mitigate damage to eels and fish whilst at the same time delivering stakeholders £3M in capital savings against their national framework estimate. The station, which also includes the creation of some bird habitat, is the first of its kind to fully embrace the regulations from concept through to commissioning.
Distributor of the Year
Sponsored by: WEG
Winner: Tomlinson Hall & Co.
Tomlinson Hall’s engineering heritage – built up over 97 years and reinforced by our team’s technical expertise – enables us to create bespoke solutions for customers. We ensure clients can meet the challenges they face, whatever the scenario. As both a pump manufacturer and a pump distributor, we understand industrial challenges from multiple perspectives. Continuing our commitment to service excellence, in 2015 we significantly enhanced our customer service provision and invested heavily in training.
Manufacturer of the Year
Sponsored by: AESSEAL
Winner: KSB
KSB is one of the largest manufacturers of pumps, valves and automation products in the world. Founded in Germany in 1871, and now with 16,000 employees, KSB is truly a global company. Present in the UK since 1896, KSB is able to offer customers a large variety of products and services. Investing in people, manufacturing and innovation has helped maintain KSB’s place as a market leader in the supply of pumps to many industries.
Supplier of the Year
Sponsored by: Tomlinson Hall & Co
Winner: John Crane
John Crane is a global leader in engineered technology, supplying engineered products and services to energy services customers and other major process industries. The company designs and manufactures a variety of products including mechanical seals, couplings, bearings, filtration systems and artificial lift equipment. John Crane employs about 6,900 people and has more than 230 sales and service facilities in 50 countries.
Engineer of the Year
Sponsored by: World Pumps
Winner: Ryan Pearson, Grundfos Pumps
Ryan has worked in the water industry for 12 years and is passionate about what he does. He has a helpful ‘can do’ attitude, which he combines with practical ‘hands on’ knowledge and excellent communication skills, making him a highly thought of, well-respected member of the Grundfos team. Ryan understands the importance of sharing knowledge, always goes the extra mile, and is a great ambassador not only for the company but the wider industry.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Sponsored by: BPMA
Winner: Ken Hall, Managing Director of Calpeda Pumps
Having served as a Marine Engineering Officer in the Merchant Navy, Ken moved into the pump industry in the early 1980s, initially as a Contracts Engineer in the mining and oil pump sector, later moving into a technical sales role. He’s served with Calpeda Pumps since 1986 where he has held positions including Sales Manager, Sales Director and since 1995 Managing Director. In addition to heading up the company`s UK and Ireland operations, he also provides the head office in Italy with technical and commercial sales support across the world and heads up their energy policy unit. Ken has been a member of the BPMA council for over 20 years, and held the position of BPMA President on two occasions. He is still a Director of the BPMA, and BPMA representative on the council of the European Pump Manufacturers Federation (Europump) and served as their President in 2007 and 2008. Ken was the architect and driving force behind Europump’s acclaimed energy policy Ecopump, and has promoted the pump industry’s European energy policy at events and conferences across the world. He continues to serve on Europump council, and has been appointed to the role of special advisor to Europump council on energy policy.
Commenting on the 2016 Awards Programme, Steve Schofield, Director & CEO of the BPMA said, "Thank you to everyone who put forward an entry into this year’s awards program, the quality of which was again excellent. Our judging process is extremely rigorous, so many congratulations to all those who reached the final stage, and of course to the individual category Winners. We feel this year’s complement of Finalists truly encompass the scope of success and innovation in the pump industry today, and highlight just how valued this awards program has become".
