Conventional lobe pump gets reinvented

June 15, 2015

Lobe pumps have been a staple in materials transport for more than 100 years, but they have one major design flaw: pulsating flow.

Flow Control Staff

OCOR’s lobe pump design. Image courtesy of OCOR.

Lobe pumps have been a staple in materials transport for more than 100 years, but they have one major design flaw: pulsating flow. San Diego-based OCOR Corporation has released the prototype of a fully reversible lobe pump that produces both high pressure and high volume flow in a single stage, delivering continuous, non-pulsating flow.

The OCOR Multiple Segment Lobe Pump (patent pending) transports all types of media, including high and low viscosity liquids, air and gases, as well as semi-solids such as mud or slurries of combined materials in a smooth, continuous stream. After years of proof-of-concept testing, the company recently announced this new design has the potential to redefine lobe pumps in commercial applications worldwide and is now ready for a development partner.

OCOR says the flow variations that come from traditional lobe style pumps have been eliminated through the company’s patented multi-segment rotor system where side-by-side nesting rotors (a segment) divides the incoming flow sequentially into arc segments that, when rotated, positively displace (pump) the media through the isolated region (between inlet and discharge) within the containment housing.

As an example, picture three individual rotor segments separated by stationary seal plates on a shaft, each of which have three lobes which can be either flat sided or helical in shape, then each pumping chamber, (i.e. the volume encased by adjacent lobes and the stationary containment housing), would contain one-eighteenth of the media volume that is seamlessly transported from inlet to discharge in one revolution of the input drive shaft (see figure). OCOR says the result of the new design, unlike any others on the market, is that the pump can run at any desired speed, in either direction, with constant displacement efficiency and deliver both high volume and high pressure.

In development for more than six years, OCOR president Brian O’Connor said the new lobe pump technology has many applications. “Solving this major design issue, when it comes to materials delivery, can be an invaluable breakthrough to industries worldwide,” O’Conner said. A sampling of some of the potential markets to use the new OCOR Multiple Segment Lobe Pump include: Water Treatment/Waste Management, Desalinization, Marine Propulsion, Firefighting, Oil and Gas Pipeline Operations, and Air and Gas Compression.

A demonstration of the prototype unit can be viewed on YouTube.