Spaans Babcock have installed the largest screw pump they have installed for Scottish Water in the SR10 period at their Sleepless Inch treatment works in Perth, which is currently fully operational.

The screw which is more than 20 metres long, weighs around 30 tonnes and has a capacity of 900 l/s over a lift of 9.4m is to supplement two existing Spaans Babcock screw pumps at the site which were installed in 1968 and are still operating.

The screw pump is the largest “Compact” Spaans Babcock have installed for Scottish Water since they started installing screw pumps for them 50 years ago. Scottish Water do have larger Spaans Babcock screws, up to 3.3m diameter, operating in concrete troughs.

Scottish Water utilised Archimedes screws at many of their treatment works, the majority of which have been supplied and installed by Spaans Babcock.

Using the Compact screw design keeps the civil costs to a minimum whilst maintaining all the usual benefits associated with screw pumps versus alternate pumping technology.