R4PP

The aim is to develop an innovative and economical radial piston pump for the food sector. In addition to target parameters such as efficiency, compactness and cost optimization, the pump must be low-noise in later operation and have good dry running characteristics.

Small-sized food pumps are used, for example, in beverage vending machines, dispensing systems or coffee machines. Although being a mass product, they are quite cost-intensive due to the high manufacturing precision required. To create competitive advantages, haru präzision GmbH and IVW are working together on two primary approaches: The development of a novel pump concept by using plastic composites to optimize the tribologically highly stressed sliding contacts inside the pump. The innovative, patent pending (DE102016102993A1) pump design consists of only a few components. The flat design enables high-precision reworking of the injection-molded plastic components in axial direction. A piston-in-piston concept converts four stroke movements per revolution. To validate material suitability, market analyses of commercially available plastic composites with food certification were carried out. These were subjected to tribological model tests in dry and wet running in order to analyze and select suitabl material pairings. Initial pump components were manufactured on the basis of these results. Representative functional tests are to be carried out in the near future.