The fire pump manufacturing centre is equipped to design, assemble, test and package fire pumps for European market requirements. It can also produce pumping systems for a range of other applications industries, often using the technical requirements of firefighting to set benchmarks in other industries.
The facility also provides parts and support for pump equipment to other Ruhrpumpen companies around the world, and offers product and system testing, training and specialist consultancy services.
The centre is fitted with TorqSense transducers which measure and record torque levels in rotating pump drive shafts, with analysis of the data confirming real-time performance standards, in testing operations.
TorqSense is made by Sensor Technology in Banbury and comes in a range of sizes for measuring torque, both rotary and static, from 10mNm up to 13,000Nm. Different ranges are based on different technologies, including full four element strain gauge bridges and optical measurement. None of these require hard wiring with slip rings, instead being designed for use with wireless radio frequency pick-ups which are said to make set up and adjustment fast and simple.
Sensor Technology produces a range of data display, recording and analysis interfaces. However, Ruhrpumpen decided to use bespoke data systems developed to directly address the needs of the industry. With these, data is recorded and analysed in Ruhrpumpen’s own performance test app before the final pump test report is made available.