WO2014060612A1

WO2014060612A1 - Pump for swimming pools

Info

Publication number: WO2014060612A1
Application number: PCT/ES2012/070711
Authority: WO
Inventors: Narciso BOLÍVAR RODRÍGUEZ
Original assignee: Metalast, S.A.U.
Priority date: 2012-10-15
Filing date: 2012-10-15
Publication date: 2014-04-24

Abstract

The invention relates to a pump for swimming pools, comprising: a main body (5) provided with a cover flange (6), inside which drive means (7, 8, 9) are housed; and a motor (10) which actuates the drive means. The pump is characterised in that the drive means comprise a volute (7), an impeller (8) and/or a diffuser (9) which are housed inside the assembly formed by the main body (5) and the cover flange (6) such that they can be interchanged, thereby forming a centrifugal pump or a self-suction pump. The invention allows the design of the main body and the cover flange to be used for any type of pump, regardless of whether it is centrifugal or self-suction and regardless of the desired power to be achieved, thereby providing a significant reduction in the productions costs of the pump of the invention.

Description

POOL PUMP

Technical Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a pool pump, in particular a pool pump that can be of the centrifugal or self-aspirating type, depending on the market where it is marketed.

Background of the invention

Pool pumps are used to filter an adequate volume of water and keep the pool water clean.

Currently known pool pumps comprise a body provided with a mechanical seal flange to which a prefilter body and an engine are connected. Usually, both the body and the closing flange are made of metal, their union being made by means of a plurality of screws.

Pool pumps can be of two types depending on the market where they are sold: centrifuges (for example for Europe) or self-aspirating (for example for the United States).

Centrifugal pumps comprise a volute and impeller assembly inside said body, whose rotation causes the propulsion of water. On the other hand, the self-priming pumps comprise a diffuser inside said body, whose rotation also causes the propulsion of the water. Consequently, it is currently necessary to have two different types of pumps depending on the market where they are sold, in which the body and the closing flange are different, with the consequent manufacturing cost involved in manufacturing essentially the same pump, but in two different versions.

In addition, depending on the powers to be achieved for the pump, it is necessary to change the dimensions of the volute and impeller assemblies and the diffusers, so that at present it is necessary to have several versions of the body and the closing flange, with the consequent additional cost that this represents.

That is to say, at present it is usual to have different versions of pumps, depending on the market where they want to be commercialized (centrifuges and self-aspirants) and also depending on the power they must provide, so that their costs are multiplied.

Therefore, a first objective of the pump of the present invention is to achieve a pool pump that allows to minimize the manufacturing costs of all its possible versions, so that the body and the closing flange are always the same for all versions.

In addition, a second objective of the pump of the present invention is to manufacture as much plastic material as possible, so that its cost and weight are reduced as much as possible.

Description of the invention

With the pool pump of the present invention, the aforementioned drawbacks are resolved, presenting other advantages that will be described below.

The pool pump of the present invention comprises:

- a main body provided with a closing flange, inside which drive means are housed;

- a motor that drives said drive means; and characterized in that said drive means are a volute, a impeller and / or a diffuser that are housed inside the main body assembly and the closing flange interchangeably with each other, so that a centrifugal pump or a self-priming pump.

Thanks to this feature, the design of the main body and the closing flange allows it to be used for all variants of the pump, regardless of whether it is centrifugal or self-aspirating, or of the desired power, which represents a significant reduction in the manufacturing costs of the pump of the present invention.

According to a preferred embodiment, said volute is formed in two parts of plastic material, which are preferably connected to the main body and the closing flange by means of a sandwich connection. In this way, the volute can be made of plastic material with an optimized design, since otherwise the single-piece plastic volute could not be demoulded. In addition, the sandwich type joint avoids the use of screws for joining said two parts.

Advantageously, said impeller is made of plastic material, and said motor comprises a shaft that drives said drive means, said shaft comprising a metal insert at its distal end. Thanks to the inclusion of the metal insert, the impeller can be aligned with the pump outlet due to the longer shaft length.

According to a preferred embodiment, said metal insert is integral with said impeller, being placed in position during the injection of the impeller plastic, which presents advantages of alignment and centering of the insert with respect to the impeller.

According to alternative embodiments, said impeller comprises a plurality of blades, whose leading edge has a profile in the form of an ellipse, square or with a straight side and another curved, to optimize the water flow.

Preferably, said closing flange is formed by two parts: a first housing part of the mechanical seal and closure of the hydraulic zone, and a second support piece of said first piece and adaptation to different motors. In this way, a single closing flange adapted to different motors, and the functions are unified in a single flange with an optimized cost.

According to a preferred embodiment, said first piece of the closing flange is of plastic material and said second piece of the closing flange is of cast iron.

Advantageously, said main body comprises an outlet displaced to one side, which allows a single design of the lateral outlet for all possible volutes.

Preferably, the pool pump of the present invention comprises an insert provided with a positioner positioned between said main body and the closing flange. The presence of said insert allows to improve the union between the main body and the closing flange without leaving an excessive space between them.

According to a preferred embodiment, said filter basket comprises a suction plane, which allows the filter basket to have a large filtering capacity and a low head loss.

Advantageously, the diameter of said volute is larger than the outer diameter of said impeller, which facilitates the disassembly of the assembly formed by the motor, the flange and the impeller of the rest of the pump, avoiding completely disassembling the pump from the installation, by example for maintenance.

Preferably, said volute defines a pair of cavities inside the main body communicated with each other, said closing flange comprising a hole for purging said cavities, which allows the pump to be completely purged.

The pool pump of the present invention also comprises a support foot provided with a raised portion for the motor support and at least two slots to accommodate a ring of the closing flange, which allows the same support foot to be Can adapt to different engine sizes.

Brief description of the drawings For a better understanding of how much has been exposed, some drawings are attached in which, schematically and only by way of non-limiting example, a practical case of realization is represented.

Figure 1 is an exploded perspective view of the pool pump of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a sectional side view of the scroll;

Figure 3 is a sectional side view of the output shaft of the engine, provided with a metal insert inserted in the impeller;

Figure 4 is a perspective view of the impeller of the pool pump of the present invention;

Figure 5 is a schematic view of the three possible profiles of the leading edge of the impeller blades shown in Figure 4; Figure 6 is a perspective view of the closing flange of the pump of the present invention attached to a motor;

Figure 7 is a perspective view of the main body of the pump of the present invention, provided with an insert and a positioner;

Figure 8 is a perspective view of the filter basket of the pool pump of the present invention;

Figure 9 is a perspective view of the pool pump of the present invention mounted in an installation, in which it can be seen how a part of the pump is disassembled for replacement or maintenance tasks; Y

Figure 10 is a sectional side view of the lower part of the main body, resting on the support foot of the pool pump of the present invention.

Description of a preferred embodiment

First, it should be noted that in the present description and in the claims, when the terms "centrifugal pump" and "self-priming pump" are used, they should be interpreted as follows:

- Centrifugal pump: it is a rotodynamic pump that uses a rotation of the impeller (impeller) to increase the pressure and the flow rate of a fluid. Commonly in the pool sector they are considered as non-self-priming pumps, which is why they are recommended to be installed in such a way that they have a positive load or absolute pressure at the pump inlet. That is, install the pump in load or use other methods for priming (for example, automatic priming systems, check valve or foot valve installation, etc.).

- Self-priming pump: it is a centrifugal pump that is capable (although limitedly) of completely self-priming, that is, it is capable of purging all the air from the inlet pipe in order to completely prime the pump with water.

It should also be noted that although in the title and claims reference is made that the pump is applicable to swimming pools, it is clear that the pump of the present invention can also be applied to other aquatic applications that use pumps.

Figure 1 shows the pool pump of the present invention exploded.

Said pool pump comprises:

- a prefilter body 1, comprising a filter basket 2, a prefilter cap 3 and a prefilter nut 4;

- a main body 5 provided with an outlet 5a provided with a closing flange 6, inside which houses a volute 7, an impeller 8 and / or a diffuser 9, depending on the type of pump, centrifugal or self-aspirating;

- a motor 10 provided with an output shaft 10a; Y

- a support foot 1 1.

As described above, the main body 5 is made of plastic material, and allows it to be unique for any pump version, regardless of whether it is of the centrifugal or self-aspirating type or of the desired power.

As can be seen in greater detail in Figure 2, the scroll 7 is also made of plastic material and is formed by two independent parts 7a, 7b obtained by injection molds and joined by means of a "sandwich" joint with the main body 5.

This configuration of volute 7 in two pieces allows the volute to be made by injection mold, which would be unfeasible if it were in one piece. In addition, the use of a "sandwich" joint allows not to use screws for said joint. However, it should be noted that such a connection could be made in any suitable manner.

In conventional pumps, the output shaft 10a of the motor 10 is excessively short, and does not allow it to align with the pump outlet. To solve this problem, a metal insert 8a, for example stainless steel, is placed in the impeller 8 during the plastic injection, so that in its mounted position said metal insert 8a will extend the length of the output shaft 10a of the engine, allowing said alignment.

Said impeller 8 (figure 4) is also made of plastic material and is provided with a plurality of blades 8b. In order to optimize the water flow and to allow demoulding of the impeller, the leading edge of the blades 8b is provided It can have three different configurations, as shown in Figure 5.

According to these three alternative configurations, the leading edge can have an ellipse-shaped profile, square or with a flat side and a curved side, as shown in Figure 5.

To adapt to different motors and perform the function of supporting axial stress structure, said closing flange 6 is formed by two pieces of different functionality and composition, as can be seen in Figure 6.

A first piece 6a of the closing flange 6 is made of plastic material and performs the function of housing a mechanical seal and closing the hydraulic zone of the pump, and a second piece 6b of the closing flange 6 is made of cast iron, and performs the adaptation function to different engines and structural support with respect to axial stresses.

In figure 7 a perspective view of the main body 5 is shown, in which it can be seen that said outlet 5a is displaced to one side, whose design allows it to be unique for all possible voltages that the main body 5 houses.

To achieve a correct connection between the closing flange 6a and the main body 5, an insert 5b and a positioner 5c are placed between them.

This is done because without this insert 5b, in the area of the exit 5a it would not be possible to place any screw or similar joint element, due to possible leaks through the through hole that should be made on the main body 5. Without this screw or joint element in the area of the outlet 5a, an excessively large angle (of about 50 ^e ) should be left without any joint element.

Thanks to the presence of this insert 5b it is not necessary to make any through hole in the main body 5, but in the insert 5b itself, which allows the positioning of the positioner 5c in the desired position. As indicated above, a filter basket 2 is housed inside the prefilter body 1, which must have a large filtering capacity and low head loss. For this, a filter basket 2 has been designed, which comprises a suction plane 2a, which allows the loss of load to be reduced.

To allow separation of the assembly formed by the motor 10, the closing flange 6 and the impeller 8 from the rest of the pump, as can be seen in Figure 9, the volute 7 has been designed so that its diameter is larger that the outer diameter of the impeller 8, avoiding completely disassembling the pump from the installation, as was conventional until now.

Another problem of conventional pumps currently known is to achieve complete emptying of the pump. As can be seen in Figure 10, scroll 7 defines inside the main body 5 a pair of cavities 7a, 7b in communication with each other.

Unlike conventional pumps in which the purging is carried out through the main body 5, in the case of the present invention the purging is carried out through a purge hole 12a provided in the plastic flange 6a. In this way, when it is desired to empty the main body 5, the purge plug 12 must simply be removed prior to the handling of the pump, achieving a complete emptying. In said figure 10 it can also be seen that the pump of the present invention also comprises a support foot 1 1, comprising a raised portion 13 for supporting the motor 10 and a portion comprising at least one pair of grooves 14, in a of which a fin 15 of said body is housed 5. The arrangement of two or more grooves 14 allows the use of the same support foot 1 1 for different sizes of the motor 10.

It should be noted that the pool pump of the present comprises other elements that can be seen in the figures. However, these other elements are not part of the present invention and are not described in detail, since they are conventional in the pumps currently known and any person skilled in the art will appreciate their function.

Although reference has been made to a specific embodiment of the invention, it is apparent to one skilled in the art that the described pool pump is susceptible to numerous variations and modifications, and that all the mentioned details can be replaced by others technically equivalent, without departing from the scope of protection defined by the appended claims.

Claims

one . Pool pump, comprising:

- a main body (5) provided with a closing flange (6), inside which drive means (7, 8, 9) are housed;

- and a motor (10) that drives said drive means; characterized in that said drive means are a volute (7), an impeller (8) and / or a diffuser (9) that are housed inside the main body assembly (5) and the closing flange (6) so interchangeable with each other, so that a centrifugal pump or a self-aspirating pump is achieved.

2. Pool pump according to claim 1, wherein said volute (7) is formed in two parts (7a, 7b) of plastic material.

3. Pool pump according to claim 2, wherein said parts (7a, 7b) of the volute (7) are connected to the main body (5) and to the closing flange (6) by means of a " sandwich".

4. Pool pump according to claim 1, wherein said impeller (8) is made of plastic material.

5. Pool pump according to claim 1, wherein said motor (10) comprises an output shaft (10a) that drives said drive means (7, 8, 9), said output shaft (10a) comprising an insert metallic (8a) at its distal end.

6. Pool pump according to claims 4 and 5, wherein said metal insert (8a) is integral with said impeller (8), being placed in position during injection of the impeller plastic (8).

7. Pool pump according to claim 4, wherein said impeller (8) It comprises a plurality of blades (8b), whose leading edge has an ellipse-shaped profile, square or with a straight side and a curved side.

8. Pool pump according to claim 1, wherein said closing flange (6) is formed by two pieces: a first part (6a) for housing a mechanical seal and closing of the hydraulic zone, and a second part ( 6b) of support of said first piece (6a) and adaptation to different motors (10).

9. Pool pump according to claim 8, wherein said first piece (6a) of the closing flange (6) is made of plastic material and said second part (6b) of the closing flange (6) is cast.

10. Pool pump according to claim 1, wherein said main body (5) comprises an outlet (5a) displaced to one side;

- and a prefilter body (1) inside which a filter basket (2) for water filtration is housed.

eleven . Pool pump according to claim 1, comprising an insert (5b) provided with a positioner (5c) placed between said main body (5) and the closing flange (6).

12. Pool pump according to claim 1, wherein said filter basket (2) comprises a suction plane (2a).

13. Pool pump according to claim 1, wherein the diameter of said volute (7) is greater than the outer diameter of said impeller (8).

14. Pool pump according to claim 1, wherein said volute (7) defines a pair of cavities (7a, 7b) inside the main body (5) communicated with each other, said plastic closing flange (6a) comprising a hole (12a) for purging said cavities (7a, 7b).

15. Pool pump according to claim 1, comprising a foot of support (1 1) provided with a raised portion (13) to support the motor (10) and at least two grooves (14) to accommodate inside the fin (15) of the body (5).