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Company:	Finish Thompson
Industry:	Chemical Processing
Application:	DB Series magnetic drive pumps
MCAD System:	SolidWorks

Finish Thompson, a designer and manufacturer of chemical process, drum and barrel pumps based in Erie, Pa., used CFdesign upfront CFD software to double the efficiency of a new line of magnetic drive pumps while reducing total product development time by an estimated 33 percent. Testing time was cut from six months to six weeks.

The company’s new pumps can save customers thousands of kilowatt-hours per year on electric bills.

CFdesign differs from traditional CFD systems in that it works directly with the native geometry of the CAD software used to create the product model. This eliminates the time-consuming process of translating CAD geometry to fit the parameters of the CFD software. Finish Thompson engineers gained insight into pump performance early in the product design process, cutting development time and substantially reducing the amount of physical prototyping and testing required.

Based on results from CFdesign simulations, Finish Thompson made alterations in SolidWorks, adjusting vane angles, width and thickness; changing the impeller diameter; and manipulating the housing diffusion angle. After each design change, CFdesign’s Design Review Center was used to get an interactive, apples-to-apples comparison of all design options. Trade offs and next steps were quickly agreed upon and design modifications were made in SolidWorks.

Company engineers say that they ran approximately 20 simulations for two different product series before they felt comfortable with the design for each model. They estimate it would have taken at least twice as many physical tests to come close to these results, and even then the results would not be as reliable, since design engineers would be unable to visualize exactly what was happening inside the pump.

While customers are already benefiting from double the efficiency – 35 to 70 percent – when using Finish Thompson’s DB series of pumps, the company is reaping the rewards of being able to test many more design elements about three times as fast as within a lab environment.

After implementing upfront CFD for the first time, Finish Thompson sees a wealth of future possibilities. The company is rapidly expanding its DB series, and also has plans to introduce a self-priming pump that customers are already anxious to buy.