Survey Says Over 90 Percent of Pump Designers Rank Improving Design Efficiency as Number One

In response to the survey results, ADT has launched its ADT Pump Efficiency Initiative to provide pump design services applying Turbodesign Suite for systematic pump optimization. Pump design companies and original equipment manufacturers can benefit greatly from ADT s initiative. ADT estimates that every participant in its ADT Pump Efficiency Initiative will receive over $20,000 USD in pump design services provided with software access for evaluation purposes.

ADT’s 2012 Pump Design Survey, conducted via email with ADT customers and prospects, directly targeted pump design engineers at consulting and original equipment manufacturing companies. The survey results showed that improving impeller designs for better efficiency was very important for the majority of the respondents—84 out of 90.

“As any pump designer knows, the impeller plays a key role in pump system operation and has the largest impact on the overall system efficiency," said Mehrdad Zangeneh, professor of thermofluids at University College London and founding director of ADT. "With Turbodesign Suite, there are some exciting opportunities that designers can leverage for systematic improvement of pump stage performance.”

The survey results reflect the responses of 90 participants who were asked to state whether certain performance targets are 1) not important at all, 2) somewhat important, or 3) very important.

Pertinent findings from the ADT 2012 Pump Design Survey include:

• 84 of 90 respondents stated that improving impeller design for better efficiency is very important.
• 79 of 90 respondents stated that improvement to pump stage efficiency is very important.
• 65 of 90 respondents stated that improvement to pump stage cavitation performance is very important.
• Just 50 of 90 respondents stated that reduction in manufacturing costs was very important.

“It is clear to us why impeller efficiency is so important to pump manufacturers,” added Zangeneh. “Reports show that in some industries energy and maintenance costs can account for up to 70 percent of the total pump life cycle costs. Considerable savings can be achieved with improved impeller designs.”

According to Pump Life Cycle Costs: A Guide to LLC Analysis for Pumping Systems, by the Hydraulic Institute, Europump and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT), pumping systems account for nearly 20 percent of the world’s electrical energy demand, and from 25 to 50 percent of the energy usage in certain industrial plant operations.

"Turbodesign Suite has already been proven to provide designers with an accessible platform for systematic development of reliable and highly efficient pump systems across a wide range of operating points and speeds,” commented Zangeneh. “So, we decided to launch the ADT Pump Efficiency Initiative. We are offering our design services for free to enable companies to evaluate the software and see first-hand how to make their pumps more efficient, provided the companies do not use the resulting designs for commercial use."