User Success Story: Reducing Running Costs with Smoothflow Pumps

Stable Transfer with Smoothflow of a Slurry Liquid Which Severely Wears Out Consumable Parts at 1/30th of the Cost of the Pre-existing Pump

Raw Materials Manufacturer Company D

Production Engineering Department

Raw materials manufacturer Company D was using a metering rotary pump in their positive electrode material production line for lithium ion secondary batteries, but the frequency in which they had to replace the consumable parts was hurting both their heads and their wallets.

Problems:

・The transfer pump was struggling due to the high viscosity slurry liquid.

Raw materials manufacturer Company D manufactures electrode materials for lithium ion secondary batteries. Especially the demand for cathode materials had been growing due to their high quality, but Mr. A of the Production Engineering Department was faced with a big problem.

Along with the increase in production of positive electrode materials, it became necessary to replace the consumable parts of the metering rotary pump feeding the electrode slurry every month.

・The wearing out of the consumable parts was severe, so they were spending over 5 million yen per year on running costs!

In this line, the electrode slurry was supplied to the coater with a metering rotary pump. Due to the high concentration of slurry in the liquid, the wear and tear of the parts was much faster than other lines, and contamination often occurs, so the running cost expanded to more than 5 million yen per year.

“We received instruction from headquarters to considerably improve the production costs, but in order to maintain the performance of the product, we were not able to change the content of the positive electrode material. Also, in order to maintain the quality of the product, it was essential for us to replace the consumable parts every month. Since we had to solve both problems, the only plan we had to improve the situation was to find a tough pump which requires less replacements of the consumable parts.” Mr. A, the person responsible for improving the production line, was constantly dealing with the headache of improving their situation.

Problem Points:

・I want to significantly reduce the running cost of the consumable parts.

・I want to keep the pulsation rate equal to or less that existing pump we are already using.

Solution:

・Superior wear resistance with Smoothflow Pumps.

Mr. A decided to look at other production lines in hopes of finding a hint to reduce the costs. At that time, there was a line implementing a pump he was unfamiliar with, Smoothflow Pump.

“When I talked to the person in charge of implementing the Smoothflow Pump, he introduced me to Tacmina’s salesperson, and we were able to find a solution to our problem in an unexpected place because it is sometimes hard to see what is right under your nose.”

Mr. A immediately decided to perform a comparison test with the actual liquid with a new rotary type metering pump and a brand new Smoothflow Pump at Tacmina’s Liquid Solution Center. This is a testing facility that allows customers to perform tests using their actual transfer liquid to confirm the performance of Tacmina’s Smoothflow Pumps. As a result of the test, Mr. A was able to confirm that Tacmina’s Smoothflow Pump had the same performance in respect to flow rate and pulsation rate.

On the other hand, with respect to the wear of consumable parts, Tacmina’s Smoothflow Pump had superior wear resistance due to the facts that its structure does not have any sliding parts, and its completely sealed structure prevents foreign matter from mixing into the transfer liquid.

During the test where the slurry liquid was transferred over a long period of time, the flow rate of the metering rotary pump decreased over time, but the Smoothflow Pump showed no change in the flow rate. Based on these results, Mr. A decided to implement a Smoothflow Pump into his production line.

・Reduced the cost down to about 1/30th of the cost of their pre-existing pump!

“The frequency at which we have to replace the consumable parts has drastically decreased, so the running costs that had cost us more than 5 million yen per year was decreased to less than 1/30th of that. Mr. A was satisfied that he was able to overcome these problems by implementing a Smoothflow Pump.

Solution Points:

・By reducing the frequency of the replacement of consumable parts, the annual replacement costs and the personnel costs related to this work, which were about 5 million yen per year, were reduced to less than 1/30th of that.

・The Smoothflow Pump maintained that same flow rate and pulsation rate as the metering rotary pump.