GIW Industries, Inc., offered a live demonstration of common slurry system operations challenges to attendees at the 2015 SME Conference & Expo in Denver, Colorado, Feb. 15-18.

At the KSB/GIW Industries booth, visitors watched in fascination as GIW’s Slurry Loop demonstration gave them a close-up view of the slurry process that they could never witness in normal operations. The Slurry Loop, a portable pipe system modeled in clear plastic tubing, provides a way to see how the physics of particle transport works inside a slurry system.

GIW’s resident slurry pump expert Reab Berry conducted the demonstrations, which highlight three essential concepts of particle transportation in pipelines:

• Small particle transport — Surprisingly, not large particles, but small particles the size of beach sand are the most difficult to pump.
• Cyclone operation — In the clear loop, a miniature cyclone demonstrates how particle separation happens inside a slurry system.
• Incline pipelines — In a moveable section of the model, visitors see how surging occurs in an inclined section of a pipeline.

Berry, who is an experienced trainer with more than 50 years in the industry, conducted multiple demonstrations during each day of the conference. He said, “This demonstration has a high appeal to a wide variety of attendees, including customers, equipment representatives, potential customers, operators, plant managers, professors, consultants, a lot of students — and a few competitors.”

Providing an open forum for training and education is a core value of GIW Industries. Throughout its history, the company has offered formal training courses in slurry transport and pump maintenance, and regularly partners with universities and standards organizations to create documentation and train students. The company actively integrates training into all aspects of its customer service. And the GIW Hydraulic Lab is an internationally known research center that continually brings the industry ground-breaking developments in computerized methods for pump selection and slurry wear analysis, and numerous advancements in slurry pump and pipeline technology.

Meilin Ruiz, GIW Marketing Specialist, said, “This type of interactive display is very popular at our shows. They draw a crowd and are very educational. Because they are in demand, we are developing new interactive displays that will become a regular part of our shows going forward.”

Would you like to see GIW’s Slurry Loop in person? The next demonstration will be at the CIM 2015 Convention in Montreal, May 10-13.
About KSB and GIW® Minerals
GIW Industries, Inc. was established as a small, privately owned foundry and machine shop in 1891. By 1914 the company was supplying slurry pumps to the Florida phosphate industry. Over the years, GIW became known for its severe abrasive handling pumps and began a century of facility expansion and technology growth. In 1996 GIW became a full subsidiary of KSB and in 2014 the GIW® Minerals brand was established.

Through the GIW® Minerals product brand, KSB strives to be an innovative partner that provides you with the best and longest wearing slurry solutions. We are your partner, today and in the future.