Before we talk slurry pump impeller material, we need to know what is impeller. Impeller is a rotating component of a centrifugal pump, which transfers energy from the motor that drives the pump to the fluid being pumped by accelerating the fluid outwards from the center of rotation.
Usually the impeller made of iron, steel, bronze, brass, aluminum or plastic. For Slurry pump impeller normally made of High chrome alloy, elastomer, polyurethane and some other customed. But High chrome alloy and elastomer are the main material for the slurry pumps.
There are Open, Semi Open and Closed impeller. For different conditions, different pumps, there will be different type impellers, but Closed ones are much more widely used. It has high efficiency and power transfer.
For impeller vanes, there are from 2 to 6 quantity for different requirements. More vanes will make it higher efficiency, but also lower passage for solids of slurry pump impeller.
Another data for the Slurry pump impeller is the passage, it will decide the max solid the impeller can pump, so check this with the pump supplier is vert important. Or it may get stuck when you use the pump.
For the slurry pump impeller material, common type is High chrome Alloy(27%Cr), it can be used from Ph 5 to 12, and its hardness can to HRC58, very good choice for slurry control and transport. But in some conditions, the Ph may lower than 5, then we try A49, it can lower to Ph4, mostly used in FGD progress.
The elastomer are widely used in fine slurry conditions and lower Ph to 2. There are also many rubbers for different conditions, such as R08, R26, S02, etc.
And recently, Polyurethane becomes popular in some conditions. It is good at corrosion and wear conditions.
What’s more Ceramic slurry pump impeller is perfect to replace elastomers and polyurethane in some condition. High Hardness and great corrosion make it even can replace the metal impeller in some conditions.