Thermofluidics rebrands the uDAHR as “Impact Pump”, as it moves towards production readiness. The Impact Pump will be launched under the brand “Impact Pumps”.
Thermofluidics rebrands the uDAHR as “Impact Pump”, as it moves towards production readiness. The Impact Pump will be launched under the brand “Impact Pumps”.
Thermofluidics has successfully completed 12 months of field trials of the Impact Pump (gamma prototype) at 2 sites in Kenya and 2 sites in Bangladesh, powered by Futurepump SF2 drive pumps. No Impact Pump failures occurred during any of the trials.
UK-based commissioning tests of our new generation of “Pre-Series 0” uDAHR prototypes have been completed in our test well in Beckley, Oxfordshire. The prototype was operated at a typical full solar-pump load for approximately 2000 hours, representing between 1 and 2 years’ typical operation in the field. Although entirely made from machined parts at significant unit cost, the PS0 is one step removed from low-cost mass production processes such as casting, injection moulding, pressing, stamping and extrusion.
We have completed a set of CAD models and drawings for our “Pre-Series 0” prototype. This improves on the gamma uDAHR, currently in operation in Kenya and Bangladesh, in a number of ways. The PS0 offers larger diameter pipework connections with implied greater hydraulic efficiencies (>80%, c.f. 70-75% previously) without increasing the pump diameter. It self-starts with all drive pumps (c.f. only drive pumps with a significant “unsteady” component to their flow), and auto-recovers from dry-running without the need for re-priming. Accelerated testing also indicates a much longer service interval than the gamma-uDAHR is possible. However, this is hard to prove as no gamma uDAHRs have yet required service!
Thermofluidics is creating a new position for a graduate engineer or physicist with 3 or more further years of experience in academia or industry to support our DAHR development work. Please see our jobs page for further information.
Thermofluidics has completed phase 1 controlled-conditions field trials of the latest smallholder irrigation DAHR and NIFTE technologies in collaboration with our development partners in the US, India and Bangladesh.
Thermofluidics has demonstrated a DAHR with 25m long pipes lifting water against a 60m head (surface pressure). Models indicate that a full 60m long apparatus situated in a deep well with an appropriately-sized drive pump will achieve market leading hydraulic efficiencies across a wide range of delivery flows.
Thermofluidics has begun controlled-conditions trials of the DAHR lifting water from depths of between 10m and 30m at sites in Pune and Kolhapur, India and Dhaka, Bangladesh
Thermofluidics engineers have begun working with iDE to assemble and commission a NIFTE solar-thermal pump for smallholder irrigation at iDE’s technical centre in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Cai Williams spent two weeks with the iDE team and successfully handed over the equipment to begin controlled trials.
Thermofluidics welcomes Lynne Dunnett as Experimental Technician. She will take on the running of our Oxford-based DAHR/NIFTE test facility. Lynne has ten years’ experience as a water engineer and has worked in East Africa and Asia on a range of irrigation projects, most of which were aimed at improving smallholder farmers’ livelihoods. Lynne has a background in Civil and Irrigation Engineering.