Follower plate pump

A follower plate pump is a device to promote very high viscosity ( paste ) from media containers. Therefore, it is often also called follower plate pump.

The principle

Cutting away a habitual intake of a pump in a highly viscous ( pasty ) medium, this medium flows so slowly that the filler neck after a short pump no longer completely immersed in the medium to be pumped and therefore draws air. To prevent this, a plate, which is present by a soft sealing lip close to the container inner side, placed on the ground in the container. This plate is slowly pushed into the ground, which therefore rises through a hole in the center of the plate into the intake port of the pump. The pumped volume and the highly depressed by the sequence of disks must be exactly the same, which must be ensured by appropriate control of the follower plate.

As pumps for viscous media, so priming piston pumps or progressive cavity pumps are

Fundamental problems

In order to eliminate air pockets when the container is changed, a considerable advance has to be pressed out of the container. This material suggests as waste impact.

The follower plate may descend too quickly, so that the material is conveyed squeezed out sideways instead of inside.

Dried waste material at the edge of the sealing lip of the follower plate may be carried into the crumbs into the material, where they either scrap when product or malfunction can cause in the plant.

The problem of the crumbs and the large amounts of waste in the container changes can be eliminated by the use of specially constructed one-way follower plates. The problem of sag can be solved with a particular control, while transported in the pump and the feed amount of the follower plate will automatically be exactly matched. If the one-way follow-up plate is designed in two layers with a number of holes in the bottom plate and the cavity is connected to a vacuum pump, the trapped below the plate can be exhausted through the holes completely. Generous discharge of material, as in conventional follower plate pumps inevitable is no longer necessary. This reduces the waste when the container is changed by at least an order of magnitude of one kilogram less than 100 grams. These small amounts of material can be found in the cavity of disposable follower plate.

This device is usually equipped with a priming piston pump or an eccentric screw pump. For highly abrasive paste-like media ( heat dissipating grout with up to 70 percent ceramic filler ) the usual priming piston pump, however, has proved to be unsuitable because it is worn out too quickly. Meanwhile, however, a double piston pump has been developed which is much more durable.

Swell

• Fluid pump according to application