SPIRAL PUMP

A BRIEF OF OVER VIEW


·The Spiral pump is a mechanic pump that is
powered by running water like rivers, or irrigation
channels. The described construction has a
maximum head of 20 m @ 20Litres per minute (but
in experiments we already reached much more). It
can be build with local materials which are
worldwide available and does not need much
maintenance.
This text is no implementing or construction manual for the Spiral pump, it just gives a brief
overview about the technology and shows some examples without going to much into details.
A more detailed manual will be published later.
The used construction is based on an design described in an old German engineering book
Handbuch der Mechanik from 1834. Additional we used some experiences from a report published
by the Blair research Laboratory, Zimbabwe which made some spiral pump prototypes in 1979.


Basically a Spiral pump is a water wheel, with an attached spiral-shaped pipe. One end of the spiral is
connected to a water collector, the other end to the axis of the wheel.
Every time the wheel turns, the collector is is collecting some water, which flows into the spiral pipe.
The water that comes out of the axis flows through a rotary fitting into a pipe that leads to a high level
tank, from where it can be distributed. According to the design the outflow of the pump is not a
continuous water column but a sequence of water and air columns.
The maximum head and capacity of the Spiral pump is depending on the flow speed of the river, the
geometry of the wheel and some other design parameters.
Depending on the geographic and hydrological conditions the pump can be constructed on a solid
footing or on a pontoon

                                                                 System application

The spiral pump was chosen for arche-noVa's water projects in the southern Mentaway Islands, West Sumatra,Indonesia, because a continously supply of fuel or electricity for convetional pumps was not available.The first prototype was built in KM 37, at the Asahan river and was used to supply a drinking water

purification plant.Acording to the condition of this place the prototype used a wooden contruction to hold the bearings of the 3m diameter wheel.The prototype had a capicity of 15 Litres per minute and a head of 6 meters.

The hydrological situation with frequently changing water levels in some area made it necessary to put
the pump on a pontoon. This construction avoids damages in times of high water levels.
This pump still uses wooden blades since no other material was available.

ROTARY CONNECTOR

An important part of the spiral pump is the rotary fitting. It must be strong enough to hold a water

column of 20 meters and more and has to resist the rough environment in the field.
Since ready made rotary fittings are hard to find on the local markets and the imported ones can easily
reach the price of a hole pump unit we developed a fitting with local available materials.

 loccaly developed rotary fitting

functional principle of a rotary fitting