The Verder group has agreed to acquire 100% of Samuel Hodge’s shares in Autoclude

The Verder group and Samuel Hodge have reached an agreement under which the Verder group will acquire 100% of the shares in Autoclude .

Autoclude design and manufacture peristaltic pumps for the OEM and Laboratory market.

The company has distributors in many countries and has an extensive product range which covers flow rates from 1 million litres a minute to 23 litres a minute, which are used in a diverse range of industries.

“With virtually no product overlap, Autocludes products represent an attractive complement to the products in our liquids division”, said Andries Verder, CEO of the Verder group.

“We believe this acquisition will further expand our customer base throughout the group”.

“The combined businesses will benefit from economies of scale through a well-established sales network and combined product development to accelerate growth and further strengthen our position in the peristaltic pump market”.

“We believe this is an outstanding transaction for our associates, customers and partners” said Hamish Kinmond, Director of Samuel Hodge.

“Verder is at the forefront of peristaltic pump technology, making it the ideal partner for Autoclude”.

“This combination is the best way to create exciting future growth opportunities for Autocludes associates and partners and enhanced products for our customers”.

Newly updated website includes expanded news and information section.

Hayward Tyler Group has expanded its online presence with a newly updated website.

The new site includes: showcases for products and applications; including additional information and images; an expanded news and information section, with up-to-the-minute announcements; downloadable documents, case-studies and brochures; and newsletter registration for both EnergE - a regular e-mail update on the company and Powertalk - a twice-yearly update on products and company information.

Debbie Reeve, Group Marketing Manager, comments: “In keeping with our strategy of being a market leader, we view the new website as significant step in increasing our presence internationally as well as providing real value to our existing and potential clients”.

The relaunch of the website follows a strong start to the year for Hayward Tyler Group, with new orders from Conoco-Phillips, Thames Water and British Energy and the appointment of Neil Langdown as General Manager of its UK Services Division.

SP centrifugal pumps are suited to handling fluids with specific gravities up to 1.8, such as sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid and sodium and potassium hydroxide.

The Finish Thompson SP series magnetic drive, self-priming centrifugal pumps are available through Michael Smith Engineers.

The SP series combine deep lift capabilities, up to 7.6m below the pump and ultra-fast priming, 4.0m in 90 seconds.

As a result of their superior lift and high working pressure capabilities, the SP series is suited to handling fluids with specific gravities up to 1.8, such as sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid and sodium and potassium hydroxide.

Reliability, low maintenance and safe operation are also assured thanks to the magnetic drive technology.

This eliminates the need for seals and removes the potential for leakage which can result when seals fail in other centrifugal pump designs.

SP series pumps also have the ability to run dry without damage.

The pumps are available in a choice of Polypropylene or PVDF which results in a tough and durable, corrosion-resistant pump.

Maximum operating temperatures are 82C for the polypropylene version and 104C for the PVDF version.

SP series pumps are capable of delivering flows up to 22m3/h and differential heads to 22m and can operate on systems with operating pressures up to 6.2bar.

SP series pumps can be mounted to most standard motors, while NPT or BSP threads, adjustable flanges or union connections make it easy to connect to most process systems, resulting in reduced installation cost and time.

Typical applications include sump emptying, transferring from underground storage tanks and tanker trucks, pumping in systems that are liable to have trapped or entrained air or in process systems where run-dry protection is needed.

Watson-Marlow Bredel’s 700 series peristaltic pump is so important to the correct functioning of the Baccelerator that the whole biological activation system is built around the pump.

Watson-Marlow Bredel is supplying its 700 series process pumps to Cleveland Biotech or a novel continuous bioaugmentation system.

Known as the Baccelerator, the system is designed for use in undersized and poorly performing waste treatment plants as might be found in municipal treatment works, food processing plants and camp sites, as well as for applications in land bio-remediation, composting and processing of landfill leachates.

Whereas previous bioaugmentation systems from Cleveland Biotech and other suppliers have used batch growth of bacteria, the Baccelerator operates continuously, running unattended for one month at a time, whereupon the supplies of nutrient and liquid or powdered bacteria have to be replenished.

Importantly, the Baccelerator maintains the exponential bacteria growth rate, thereby maximising the effectiveness of the system.

Furthermore, the bacteria in the Baccelerator are grown on the effluent to be treated, rather than an artificial substrate, so they are pre-acclimatised to the effluent.

This eliminates the lag associated with using bacteria grown on synthetic media.

In a continuous culture, a bacterial species with a doubling time of two hours, if fed with a complete volume change of fresh effluent (nutrients) every two hours, will produce 12 times the amount of maximally growing bacteria compared with a similar batch growth system over the same period of time.

In order to deliver the maximum efficiency, the bacteria used are specifically selected to match the requirements of the treatment site.

The resulting continuous feed of bacteria boosts the resident microbial activity of the effluent treatment plant and/or overcomes any transient biological shocks that may have impeded the natural microbial degradation processes within the plant.

Clearly the rate at which the effluent is pumped through the activation unit is crucial to the successful operation of the process: run the process too slowly and the efficiency will be compromised; run it too fast and the bacteria will not have time to achieve exponential growth.

In fact the 700 series peristaltic pump is so important to the correct functioning of the Baccelerator that the whole biological activation system is built around the pump.

Previously Cleveland Biotech had used a submersible pump with an orifice plate to control the flow rate.

However, effluents often contain solids or particles that can easily block an orifice plate, causing the whole process to stop working.

By redesigning the system around a Watson-Marlow Bredel 700 series peristaltic process pump, Cleveland Biotech has completely eliminated the problem of blockages because the pump is inherently tolerant of the presence of soft solids and small particles.

Cleveland Biotech has designed the Baccelerator for a monthly maintenance regime, mainly for the replenishment of the bacteria and the nutrient reservoir.

Every second month, the Marprene tubing has to be repositioned so that a fresh length is located in the pumphead.

This is a simple, quick operation.

Dr Tony Brooke, Development Director at Cleveland Biotech, comments: “Having previously used Watson-Marlow Bredel peristaltic pumps for university research projects and in commercial systems, I had full confidence in the company and its products”.

“As soon as we realised the submersible pumps and orifice plates were not up to the job, we switched to Watson-Marlow Bredel peristaltic pumps”.

“This has made the world of difference, as it gives us a level of controllability that we did not have before, enabling the process to be optimised so that customers benefit from extremely cost-effective bioaugmentation”.

“Indeed, the controllable pump proved to be so successful that we designed the rest of the equipment around that one component”.

Contract covers the design and implementation of a diverse trip system for the Sizewell B nuclear power station.

Hayward Tyler Group has been awarded a contract worth over GBP 100,000 to design and implement a diverse trip system for the Sizewell B nuclear power station.

The design is based on an electronic overspeed trip for both A and B auxiliary turbine driven feed pumps that function within 2 seconds on demand should the existing mechanical trip system fails.

The design for the corresponding pipe work has to comply with ASME Class III-ND 1983 edition guidelines and is therefore heavily driven by a stringent and high level of quality in mind.

Neil Langdown, General Manager of Hayward Tyler Services, said: “We are delighted to have been awarded the contract”.

“Sizewell B is the UK’s only large pressurised water reactor (PWR) and the first we have serviced”.

“We look forward to the project”.

Sizewell B is capable of supplying over 1.5 million homes and the station supplies 3% of the UK’s entire electricity needs.

The project end-date for the commissioning of this system is 30th October 2007.