Talk about good timing: at the same time that Andy Miller, production engineer for PPG Industries in Dover, Del., was interviewing new pump suppliers, Dale Carey, a Versa-Matic distributor, called.

It was the start of a mutually beneficial relationship. Andy solved an incessant stalling problem in the Architectural Finishes area where he's responsible for process improvements. And Dale sold a three-inch pump with Versa-Matic's exclusive anti-stalling, non-icing, lubrication-free Elima-Matic® air valve system.

For more than eight months, the E3 has performed flawlessly in an application where a competitive pump had stalled every 10 minutes, says Andy. And it's still pumping strong.

A Tough Application

"The Elima-Matic works great; no problems at all," says Al, who has 14 years of experience in brewing at Molson. "It pumps everything we ask it to pump."

PPG's Dover facility - part of the company's Coatings and Resins division -manufactures interior and exterior latex house paint. Two shifts work daily in concert with more than 100 Air-Operated Double Diaphragm (AODD) pumps ranging in size from three-quarter inch to three inches.

When Dale offered to install an Elima-Matic pump on a trial basis, Andy chose the plant's toughest application as the testing site. The pump that transfers paint (up to 20,000 gallons per shift) from a large batch tank to the filling line is cycled on and off every five to 10 seconds to maintain a maximum flow rate of a 110 gallons per minute. The constant cycling caused the competitive pump to stall repeatedly. The pump's remote location -bout 150 feet away from the work area -intensified the stalling problem. While someone was dispatched to restart the pump, the filling operation was shut down. Downtime averaged an hour per shift.

Replacing the pump with the Elima-Matic was definitive solution. "We've had absolutely no problems since the Elima-Matic was installed," Andy says.

Retrofit Parts

Versa-Matic's Versa-Dome® diaphragm, which was fitted on the E3, has further enhanced PPG's transfer operation and eliminated downtime. "The other diaphragms lasted about four months," says Andy. "The Versa-Dome has worked for seven months so far with no signs of diaphragm failure."

Success with the Elima-Matic and Versa-Dome has prompted PPG to look at Versa-Matic's full line of diaphragms and replacement parts. The compatibility of the Versa-Matic line with the pumps and parts PPG was already using was an important factor in Andy's decision to test E3.

"The other manufacturers' dimensions are totally different and would have required some significant re-piping," he says.

Andy is also looking into additional applications for the Elima-Matic. Currently, he's testing another three-inch Elima-Matic pump in a process where a competitive pump often stalls and freezes -the unloading of highly abrasive pigment slurry from railcars.

"There are some problem applications where we hope to see improvement with the Elima-Matic," says Andy. "Where the 'E' is now is the toughest application in the plant and we're working our way down. The unloading area is the next place and then we'll look at other applications where the pump has to cycle on and off."