Batescrew prides itself on its long history of designing, manufacturing and installing pump stations for a wide range of applications — whether it be diverting flood run-off, providing water to a prawn-farm dam, or irrigating cotton fields. The brief comes with the conditions of the site, and the system is built around them.
Six examples, all delivered, all still in service.
Marine
The Murray Princess paddle steamer needed manoeuvring help in tight river bends and at landings. Two 21/24 axial-flow pumps, diesel-driven, were configured as bow and stern thrusters — pushing the vessel sideways the way a propeller would push it forward. Forty years on, the install still works.
Remote, exposed
A 36H 1-stage at 1,400 L/sec, 21 m head, 360 kW at 760 rpm, 79% efficient. The site is in remote far-north Queensland — minimal escalation for installation, susceptible to floods and scouring, and home to crocodiles. Anti-crocodile screens were fitted at design. The diesel has flooded three times. First service in 2018, at 18,000 hours running time.
Mobile site
Petrol-driven, vertical belt-drive configuration for tea-tree propagation. The site is mobile — the pump moves with the planting programme. Brief solved by going to the simplest mechanically possible drive arrangement that meets the duty.
Pontoon-mounted
An 18HC, 3-stage electric drive, 340 L/sec at 60 m head, 1,470 rpm, 250 kW, 80% efficient — for grape irrigation. The challenge: the site floods. The pontoon-mounted pump rides on a gantry-and-anchor installation with the pivot above flood level, so the unit lifts and floats rather than drowning.
Flood harvesting
Two AGD diesel pumpsets, 1,750 L/sec at 14 m head each, configured around a multi-valve manifold for flood harvesting onto cotton paddocks. The valves do as much of the work as the pumps: when the river is in flood, the system captures and routes water at speed.
International · 23 years of supply
A long-running supply contract with Malaysia's Department of Irrigation and Drainage. The brief: drainage pumping in locations with insufficient electricity supply for conventional drives. The solution: 14 MC-14 sub-hydraulic units running on diesel-driven hydraulic packs. Twenty-three years of continuous supply on the same engineering principle.
A pump on its own is a moving piece of metal. What turns it into a working installation is everything around it — the screen, the manifold, the coupling, the drive, the elbow on the discharge, the suction layout, the slide rails. To ensure quality, Batescrew installs a system rather than an individual pump.
All supports specific to your contract are designed and manufactured by Batescrew to ensure the suitability and quality of each job. From piped manifolds to anti-crocodile screens, Ag flexible couplings and elbow branched bends — all are options to be included in the system suited to your application.
If your obstacle is unusual, the brief gets more interesting, not harder.
River bank, channel, ocean, paddock, drainage, deck of a paddle steamer — we will quote the system, not just the pump.
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