Today, we’re very excited to share with you the newest pump by Graco- the Quantm. While most people know Graco for their industry leading line of Air Operated Double Diaphragm pumps, the Quantm is an AODD on “steroids”. It is the first and only completely electric double diaphragm pump on the market. And as Chicagoland’s only Advanced distributor of Quantm pumps, we couldn’t be more excited to share it with you. Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll put putting out a significant amount of content showing you how the Quantm pump works, how to calculate total cost of ownership, and application experiences, but in today’s post, we’re going to start with the basics- what is the Quantm, how does it work, and why is it the ideal double diaphragm pump. So let’s get into it.
So let’s start at the top- what is a Quantm pump? The Quantm is an electrically operated (EODD) pump that runs entirely on electricity (no compressed air needed). While it’s an electric pump, it performs the same way an air operated double diaphragm (AODD) would- it stalls under pressure, can be run dry, and uses the same ball, seats, diaphragms, fluid covers, and manifolds as the Saniforce line. Unlike AODD pumps, it runs quietly and requires no compressed air whatsoever. The controls on Quantm are completely integrated, so start/stop and speed control are right on the pump along with options for remote I/O.
How does the Quantm work? The Quantm relies on the FluxCore drive, which is a transverse flux motor. The FluxCore technology, which is proprietary to Graco, is able to generate 8x more continuous torque at low speeds than conventional motors. This allows us to increase torque and power density while minimizing size and resistance losses. Fluxcore not only is able to drive the pump at higher speeds, it’s also able to give us unlimited turndown over the entire operating range of the pump. FluxCore is the secret sauce to Quantm, the rest of the pump is pretty much the same as traditional Saniforce AODDs- the fluid section of the Quantm uses the same balls, seats, diaphragms, fluid covers, and manifolds as the Saniforce line.
So if Quantm is so similar to Saniforce, why do we need it? Other than it being a simple to use, plug and play pump that is comparable in price to traditional AODDs, the biggest reason we need Quantm instead of a traditional AODD is energy. Simply put, pneumatic pumps just consume too much energy. The air AODDs consume takes electricity to produce and there are a number of steps in that production process (air compressors, line leaks, ect.) that are mired by inefficiencies. A typical 2” AODD consumes about $5,700 worth of electricity per year (at $0.12/kWhr operating 8 hours/day, five days per week). A similarly sized Quantm pump will only cost $285 in electricity to run over that same time period.
While there are other EODDs on the market, they’ve been so expensive that they haven’t quite been able to close the price gap. They also require a gear box and VFD, so they’re large, and still require air to support the diaphragms. The Quantm does not require neither gear box nor VFD and is plug and play out of the box.
At launch, the Quantm will be available in 3 sanitary sizes- the 1″ h30 (similar to a Saniforce 1040), the 2″ h80 (similar to a Saniforce 1590), and the 2.5″ h120 (similar to a Saniforce 2150). Each pump will be available with food grade (125 Ra), high san (32 Ra), 3A (32 Ra), and pharmaceutical grade (20 Ra) surface finish options. Ball and seat material options are the same for Quantm as they are for Saniforce. Flapper options will also be available for the h80 and h120 sizes.
The Quantm will have options for explosion proof Class 1 Div 1 and ATEX locations at launch. Quantm is UL certified and features an IP66 ingress rating for normal locations and an IP55 rating for hazardous locations.
So that’s Quantm in a nutshell. While future posts will take a closer look at ROI, troubleshooting, and applications we think Quantm is a great fit for, hopefully this post gives you a good understanding of a technology we couldn’t be more excited about. As always, if you have any questions about Quantm, please contact a Triplex Sales Engineer today.
