How a Paper Mill Saved $1.8 Million with GPM-Eliminator™
Summary
- A midwestern paper mill with six plants was suffering costly added downtime during scheduled outages due to pumps that couldn’t handle paper pulp waste.
- After an evaluation and recommendation by GPM, the mill installed a GPM-Eliminator™ submersible slurry pump.
- The GPM-Eliminator™ performed flawlessly, pumping pulp with zero clogs.
- The company purchased five more pumps for each of their five other plants. At an estimated savings of $30,000 per outage per plant per year, the company should realize a total savings of $1.8 million over the next decade.
The Customer: Paper Mill with Six Plants
The customer, a pulp and paper mill located in Minnesota, has six plants with sumps at each location.
While the customer has trusted GPM as their source for rotating equipment for years, they had never purchased a GPM-Eliminator™ pump.
The Challenge: Pulp Clogs Cause Costly Downtime
The papermaking process produces leftover pulp.
This pulp goes into holding tanks at each of the plant locations. Every year, the mill schedules a seven-day outage to pump out the contents of the pulper tanks into sumps, allowing for equipment inspections.
During these outages, the existing sump pumps were inevitably overwhelmed by the pulp waste. They would clog, causing added delays to already-costly downtime.
The additional downtime due to these clogs cost $30,000 per plant. Multiply that times six plants and pay that bill every single year. You can see why the customer came to GPM.
Solutions: A Case for GPM
“The customer turned to us for a solution involving a GPM-Eliminator™ pump that would reduce the additional man-hours being caused by the plugged pumps and lines,” said Chris Morgan, Regional Sales Manager at GPM.
“They needed a solution that would cut their costs and make their process more efficient.”
The Solution: Try a GPM-Eliminator™ Pump
GPM went onsite at the mill to do an evaluation. After the site visit, GPM recommended the customer install a GPM-Eliminator™ submersible slurry pump in one of its sumps to compare its performance to that of the existing pumps.
While some companies would balk at offering such a guarantee because of the potential for substantial financial impact, the GPM-Eliminator™ has performed so well with other harsh applications – like radioactive waste and hot exploded slag – that GPM was confident it could handle paper pulp with no problem.
The Result: No Clogs Equals Savings of $1.8 Million
After installing the GPM-Eliminator™ in the sump at one trial plant, the mill carried out a scheduled outage. The pump didn’t clog once.
The customer was so pleased with the pump’s performance that they purchased pumps for each of their five other locations.
At an estimated savings of $30,000 per outage per plant per year, the company should realize a total savings of $1.8 million over the next decade.
“We provided a reliable solution using GPM-Eliminator™ pumps for the paper mill, and we expect the pumps that are in place will outlast the competition by years,” said Morgan. “We sell the toughest pumps on the market, and we’re committed to helping our customers maintain their bottom line.”
Download Print Version: Paper Mill Case Study with GPM Eliminator™