06/12/2011
Hughes onboard for tanker maintenance

Hughes Pumps has recently supplied a specially designed and manufactured pumping system to MOL Tankship Management (Europe) Ltd for repair and maintenance use on the company’s methanol tankers, whilst they are at sea.



In order to reduce corrosion and extend the working life of their fleet, MOL identified a need for Ultra High Pressure (UHP) water jetting equipment to remove loose scale and coatings from ballast tanks and deck areas prior to recoating.

Drawing on their considerable expertise and experience in the supply of UHP surface preparation equipment to the marine and offshore industries, Hughes developed a system solution that overcame several challenges; designing an hydraulic motor driven pump-set that could utilise the ships own hydraulic supply to power the UHP pump, and would fit within the 1.2m wide flying bridge that runs the length of the deck.

The result, a purpose built, hydraulically driven, compact Ultrabar 24 pump-set with a performance of 23lpm at 2750 bar (40,000 psi), uses a four man riding crew to carry out water jetting on the company’s methanol tanker fleet, during voyages between the Caribbean, US Gulf and Europe. Fresh water is used in the jetting process, followed by wash-down, de-humidifying and repainting.

Ultra High Pressure (UHP) water jetting, also known as water cutting or hydro-blasting has long been the preferred method of surface preparation compared to grit blasting and is a process promoted by all paint manufactures as the most powerful and environmentally sensitive cleaning technique available to industry.

The Hughes Pumps range of UHP surface preparation equipment is used extensively in the Shipping, Marine, Oil & Gas industries and available in electric motor or diesel engine driven, suitable for use in safe or hazardous areas and can be built into certified lifting crash-frames or containers if required.

05/12/2011
Hughes cleans up in the North Sea

Leading manufacturer Hughes Pumps has recently built and supplied one of the most compact, highly specialist, high-pressure water jetting units ever produced, to a contractor working on subsea cleaning applications in the UK and Norwegian sectors of the North Sea.

With space offshore always at a premium, the design brief demanded a minimal weight and footprint. Hughes’ unique combination of an integral gearbox and SAE adaptor housing on the HPS3000 pump enabled the pump to be flange mounted to the engine, making for an extremely compact installation. To reduce size even further, a heat exchanger cooled Volvo marine engine was chosen to power the pump. Marine engines use an on board pump to lift seawater as the cooling medium, eliminating the need for a radiator and cooling fan, considerably reducing the overall size and eliminating fan noise.

The system, comprising a 300 hp (225 kW) HPS3000 pump delivering performances from 20 gpm at 20,000 psi (74 lpm at 1400 bar) to 107 gpm at 4,200 psi (405 lpm at 290 bar), incorporates a Duplex stainless steel pumphead to provide maximum corrosion resistance when pumping sea water at high pressure; with all other wetted components, including the high capacity filter housing, manufactured in 316 stainless steel.

The pump set, packaged in a four-point lift, fully enclosed crash frame, manufactured in 316 stainless steel to ensure years of maintenance free operation in the harshest of offshore environments, is one of the most compact 300 hp units ever produced.

Hughes Pumps has more than 40 years experience in the design and manufacture of its market-leading range of high-pressure water jetting equipment. Its products are used all over the world, in the harshest of environments and industries including; Petro-Chemical, Pharmaceutical, Food Processing, Offshore and Contracting. The company’s commitment to precision engineering provides the benefits of an established product range and the flexibility of a manufacturer willing to engineer a solution to any problem.

02/08/2011
Hughes adds pressure to Cameroon shipyard

Cameroon Shipyard and Industrial Engineering Ltd (CNIC) has recently taken delivery of a Hughes Pumps diesel engine driven Ultrabar 24 Ultra High Pressure (UHP) pumping unit for use on a wide range of maintenance and repair operations including surface preparation, tank and vessel cleaning, descaling, coating removal and cold cutting.



The giant CNIC industrial engineering complex serves the maintenance and repair needs of shipping companies and marine industries operating on the western seaboard of Africa from Cape Verde down to Angola, and the rapidly expanding offshore petroleum activity in the Gulf of Guinea. Airblast BV, suppliers of the Ultrabar 24, said “This powerful unit was chosen because it is proven in the most demanding applications. Its enhanced flow rate means it is capable of high performance surface preparation, cleaning and cutting on single and twin gun applications. It’s simple to operate and maintain, making it probably the most user-friendly UHP unit on the market.”

The Hughes Pumps Ultrabar 24 is one of a range of high pressure positive displacement plunger pumps and water jetting equipment, designed for heavy duty cleaning and cutting at pressures to 2,750bar (40,000psi) and power ratings to 375kW (500hp). Options available include diesel engine or electric motor drive, trailer or skid mounted, with variants to suit any specific.