KSB signs up with HMS Excellent

LOUGHBOROUGH, UK, July 25, 2007 -- KSB, the Loughborough based international pump manufacturer, has supplied specialist pump equipment to a marine fire fighting training unit in Portsmouth.

The company's variable speed drive pump control system has been installed for use in conjunction with KSB Etanorm pumps at VT plc's facility at the HMS Excellent center located on Whale Island.

A control panel and four separate VSD controllers have been fitted due to tight space restrictions along with a daylight saving clock to allow for stop/start of the system.

VT's fire fighting training center is used to train people who work on ships including Royal Navy personnel, cross channel ferry staff as well as the Marine Coastguard Agency.

Britta Frank, building services market sector manager for KSB, said: "We were brought in to help VT resolve a pressure surge problem on the water inlet while maintaining as close to constant pressure as possible for the fire hoses used for training.

"The project involves 18 hoses, each capable of releasing 75 liters per second which may need to be turned on and off at any time. Our engineers carried out a site visit to determine the customer's requirements and recognized that accumulator vessels were needed to stop the pumps from 'hunting' and added a pressure transducer to monitor suction and discharge simultaneously."

KSB worked closely with VT's in house engineering team which specified and installed the equipment.

HMS Excellent is named after a ship which was commissioned in the 1830s as the Naval School of Gunnery. The ship was originally moored off Portsmouth and used for training to improve accuracy of naval gunners.

KSB has been established in the UK for more than 100 years and is one of the world's largest pump manufacturers. The company's products are used in a wide variety of applications including building services, water and sewage as well as in manufacturing processes.

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