Innovative impeller is the solution to clogging

Consequence? High operating costs, low returns and health risks for maintenance workers. Solution? Pentair's patented X-Centric impeller. This innovative impeller ruthlessly deals with clogging!

The composition of our sewage has changed in recent decades. More and more people are using moist toilet paper or other fibrous wipes. In combination with melted grease, they cause blockages. Harm Damkot, Area Sales Manager at Pentair: "Sewer operators have tried everything to prevent clogging. From replacing the control system, stopping and starting the installation, turning back the impeller to placing grates. All solutions that help, but don't address the real problem."

Impeller without blades

Over the past decade, Pentair has continuously adapted its impellers to signals from the market. But at some point, existing impellers could not be further optimized. Raymond Meijnen, R&D engineer: "That's when we went back to the drawing board. Where we once started by modifying impellers from seven blades to a single blade, we have now gone one step further. An impeller without blades. The success of the X-Centric impeller lies in its hydraulic solution. It is completely designed to efficiently solve the problem of clogging."

Completely clog-free

After testing the new impeller extensively at Pentair's test centers in Winterswijk and America, the X-Centric has also been tested in practice at several locations. "In Amsterdam, we equipped one of the four pumps of a booster pumping station with an X-Centric in May 2019," says Meijnen. "From several blockages per week, the pump has now been running completely clog-free for over a year and a half. Another great example is a sewage pumping station in Groningen where we converted three pumps last September and fitted them with an X-Centric impeller. These pumps went from two blockages per month to completely blockage-free."

Also clean water solutions

The new X-Centric impeller is designed in such a way that it is better balanced and at the same time has a high efficiency. And that benefits operational costs, says Meijnen. "Recently we delivered two new pumps with an X-Centric impeller for a sewage pumping station that did suffer from clogging, but where the problem to be solved was extreme vibration. Our new impeller also provides a solution in such cases. Another advantage is that the impeller is also fish-friendly and can be used, for example, in polder pumping stations. The first wet mounted fish bait pumps are in production. So our new impeller is not only a godsend for the sewage sector, but also for clean water solutions."

Solving clogging problems

Pentair is currently working on a standard range for the entire market. Damkot: "It involves a covering range of capacities and heads in both wet and dry mounted pumps. Practice has now amply proven that this revolutionary impeller works. Several pilots have been running clog-free for many months with low vibration values and in some cases even with efficiencies of over 90 percent. As a result, the first customers have decided to equip several of their critical pumps with X-Centric impellers. Even in America, the first projects with this solution have already started. The sewer market has been crying out for a reliable solution for some time. Our X-Centric ís that solution."