16 A WET NEWS AND WWT SUPPLEMENT
Water engineers will be put under pressure at the annual Institute of Water Drilling & Tapping Championships. The contest, which takes place at the IWEX exhibition in May, challenges contestants to pit their precision skills against their peers. It is being hosted by the Institute of Water and is now open for entries.
Contestants will be hoping for no unexpected showers as they bid to be crowned national champions by successfully drilling and tapping a high pressure water main. Points will be awarded for speed, precision and the absence of leaks. The winning team, drawn from a utility company, partner or contractor, will go on to represent the UK at the America Water Works Association competition in Denver US in 2013. The Institute of Water, the UK’s only professional body dedicated to supporting the careers of people working in the UK water industry, holds the contest as a showcase for the profession.
The pair will drill and tap a 150mm diameter ductile iron main under pressure at 40-70psi and connect a service tap. The challenge will be complete once water discharges from the tap but teams will be penalised for leaks and breaches of safety and technical rules.
Speaking about the competition UK Championship organiser, Barrie Light, said: “It is great to see some new teams competing this year. The UK competition is the industry’s leading water sport competition and we are always encouraging new teams to get involved and give it a go.
“Why not come along and see the competition take place? If you are interested in competing in this excellent team building and networking event we can offer you full advice and support to get you started.
“Next year we will be celebrating our 25th competition so there is no better time to get involved!”
Action from last year’s event Start up for KSB’s IE4 motor
At the end of March, German pump manufacturer KSB started production of its high-efficiency SuPremE electric motor series at the company’s factory in Halle on the river Saale, Germany. The motor, which was first presented as a prototype at the Hanover trade fair in 2009, will feature on the company’s IWEX stand.
It is equipped with a four-pole rotor that only consists of a laminated core without a cage. The rotor laminations are specially shaped to guide the lines of flux. Combined with the PumpDrive variable speed system, speeds ranging between 0 and 4,200 rpm are possible as a standard. The new synchronous reluctance motors provide users with a technology that is ideally suited to also fulfil the future requirements energy-efficient drives of pumps will have to meet. KSB says that since these drives no longer
Production of the new KSB SuPremE motor has begun at KSB’s factory in Germany
need failure-prone rotor position sensors they are as robust and reliable as speed-controlled asynchronous motors. Because of the low temperatures within the rotor, the life of the new motors’ bearings is even longer. The company says that in contrast to
conventional synchronous motors, the motor does not contain any magnetic materials, such as rare earths. These raw materials cannot be mined without environmental impact in the countries of origin. They have at least 15% less power dissipation than that prescribed by Regulation EC 640/2009 for efficiency class IE3 from 2015 or 2017, depending on the motor rating. This means that the motors already reach efficiency level IE4. In contrast to asynchronous motors, synchronous reluctance motors retain efficiency even when not run at full load. This is often the case in operations where many motors operated in speed-controlled applications run mainly at reduced speed. KSB plans to make the motors available to other manufacturers.
Stand G18
No leaks allowed at water skills contest
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