With the demand for pumps growing across all kinds of sectors, and primarily among the building and agriculture segments, pump manufacturers in India are now assured of growth, thus spurring them to invest in new technologies and processes

Just another two decades or so and pump manufacturing in India will have completed a century. That indeed will be a remarkable feat, all the more so because the pump manufacturing industry has consistently grown year on year without any major hiccups. "The enterprise in the Indian pump industry merits appreciation for the achievements of prompt and competent indigenisation of almost every type of pump, of pumps in gigantic sizes, of pumps of a variety of constructional features and operational sophistications and of pumps in a variety of materials of construction. The industry has over the years built up great potential to meet challenges. It has also worked with good foresight and resilience to adapt to emerging trends, be it the compliance with the requirements of the quality systems as per the ISO 9000 series of standards or the exposure to the global competition, prompted by the liberalisation of the economy," states the Indian Pump Manufacturers Association (IPMA).

It is estimated that the production of pumps in the country is presently of the order of Rs 1,200 crore, contributed by about 1 million pumps per year, produced by 800-plus large, medium and small-scale manufacturers. The global pump market is estimated at USD 47 billion and is estimated to reach USD 56 billion by 2017. The Indian pump market is close to 2 per cent of the global market and was estimated at Rs 8,500 crore in FY14. Agriculture and building services are the two largest end use segments. The pump industry is classified into centrifugal and positive displacement pumps, with centrifugal pumps being 95 per cent of the market, within which single stage radial flow pumps and submersible pumps together make up 70 per cent. Rotary positive displacement pumps account for the largest share of positive displacement pumps. According to the IPMA, the Indian pump industry has had some notable achievements to its credit, which include the following:

• Power Generation - Thermal: The first ever concrete volute pumps to pump sea water through a once-pass cooling water system of a 500 MW thermal power station were recently made and successfully commissioned. The capacity range for these types of pumps is 10,000 m3/hr to 1,20,000 m3/hour. This was preceded by the design, development, manufacture and commissioning of 2.2 m delivery size (30,000 m3/hour) vertical mixed flow pumps, with full-scale work testing of the pumps with huge captive test facilities for drive ratings of the order of 3 MWe. 
• Captive Power-Generation: Complete pumping systems for captive power generation or co-generation are available indigenously. 
• Power Generation - Nuclear: The successful manufacture and development of moderator pumps, primary system feed pumps, shut down cooling pumps, auxiliary feed pumps and pumps for emergency core cooling system, etc., has progressed further with the development of a range of canned motor pumps up to 200 kW and most interestingly of the sodium coolant pumps for the prototype fast breeder reactor of 500 MWe capacity. Canned motor pumps for heavy water plants for ratings of the order of 15 kw have been already supplied by the Indian pump industry. 
• Oil and Natural Gas Sector: This being a unique core sector, most of the specialised needs of pumps from this sector have been developed in the public sector enterprise segment of the Indian pump industry. The developments have covered the sucker rod pumps, the multiplex mud pumps, cementing units, etc. These are supplemented by developments contributed also by the private sector, especially towards the injection pumps, fire-fighting pumps, sea-water handling pumps in duplex stainless steel for off-shore oil exploration, 1 kilometre long screw pumps, etc. 
•  Mining and Metal Ore Refining Sector: The mining activity itself, whether open cast or underground, is growing in size and technology. Accordingly, pumps of large capacities of submersible and other types and for slurry transport of the mined outputs are coming into vogue. For aluminium production, single and double casing pumps in high hardness abrasion-resistant materials have been developed indigenously. 
• Steel Sector: The pumping needs of the steel sector comprise pumping water as the one most important utility and also the pumping of other utilities like lubricating oils, furnace oil, etc. Fluidising and removal of the scale is another auxiliary activity, where pumps render a useful service. The pickling and cleaning processes involve caustic and acidic solutions, for which pumps in non-metallic constructions and in lined constructions are employed. There are a good number of manufacturers specializing in making pumps in such constructions. 
• Utility Sector: Water supply and sanitation need good and efficient pumping systems. While rivers, lakes and dams are mostly the major sources for the urban water supply, ground water is becoming an important source not only for rural water supply, but also as an auxiliary source in urban housing societies. Further, growing urbanisation with high-rise, multi-storeyed complexes is necessitating domestic pumping to be another important complement of the urban water supply. In the rural context, the pumping of water often serves jointly the dual role of irrigation and water supply.

Trends in Manufacturing Technology

As per a report published by the IPMA on its website www.indianpumps.org.in, the submersible pumps for small bore tube wells like 100 mm familiarized the Indian pump industry with mass production technologies, adopting also moulded impellers in engineering plastics like the modified PPO. Efforts have also been made to make the impellers and diffusers for submersible pumps employing pressed sheet metal fabrication. Development of winding wires with polyester-based polypropylene insulation can be credited to be a wholly indigenous endeavour.

This has improved the reliability of the submersible motor, also economising the design of the motor, by virtue of the reduced insulation thickness. Electronics and computerisation have also helped the Indian pump industry substantially. Many major manufacturers are well adept with CNC machines, have been working with computer-aided designs, gradually adopting also computer-aided manufacturing. There are examples of noteworthy developments of computerised pump selection software, marketing activities and also fully computerised pump test beds.

Market Growth

According to an analysis by Technavio, it is estimated that the pump market in India will grow at a CAGR of 12.76 per cent over the period 2014-2019. "The pump market will exceed USD 48 billion per year by 2019," it states. The growth will be driven by East Asia where sales will be over USD 18 billion in 2019. "Among the major purchasers will be municipalities. East Asia is constructing a large number of drinking water and waste treatment systems. The oil and gas industry and refineries represent a growth area worldwide. The US will be a major purchaser in 2019 due to its continuing hydro fracturing activities as well as offshore extraction. Refining and gas processing will be significant markets in the Middle East. Mining will be a major market for pumps in South America and Africa. Construction of new coal-fired plants in East Asia will also be substantial," the report states.

Other major purchasers will be the chemical industry, pulp and paper mills, dairy, and the iron and steel industry. Special sanitary pumps will be purchased by food and pharmaceutical companies. The construction of many plants to make generic drugs will impact the market. High purity pumps will also be needed for the ultra-pure water used to wash semiconductor chips. Taiwan, Korea, China and Japan account for a large percentage of semiconductor manufacturing. This percentage will grow over the next six years.

Developments and New Products

There are several leading pump manufacturers in India, including KSB Pumps, Kirloskar Brothers, Kishor Pumps, CRI Pumps, Dynamic Tech, WPIL, Shakti Pumps, Roto Pumps, Grundfos, Aqua Pumps, etc. All these companies and also the medium and small-scale enterprises have not only been posting impressive growth over the years but have given the Indian pump industry a big push through their focus on innovation that helps find indigenous solutions for the various sectors where pumps are called into play. There have also been some big-time developments such as CRI Pumps buying Italy's pump manufacturer FIPS. Founded in 1978, Milan-based FIPS specialises in waste and sewage water pumps.

According to CRI Pumps' Vice Chairman G Soundararajan, "With the acquisition of FIPS Italy, CRI will be launching the complete range of sewage and waste water pump solutions in India using the technology transfer advantage from FIPS Italy. CRI with its strong manufacturing and R&D capability will be able to offer world-class technology to meet the growing industry demands." The company has also set up an additional manufacturing unit in the Special Economic Zone of Perundurai in Tamil Nadu. The unit was set up with an initial first phase investment of Rs 30 crore to manufacture stainless steel submersible pumps, motors, vertical multistage pumps, pressure boosting systems and industrial pumps. The pump sets produced in this new unit will cater to sectors like industry, residential, irrigation, water supply, mining, oil and gas, buildings, waste water and civil projects.

In other such significant developments, Kirloskar Ebara Pumps Limited finished testing #2500 pressure class pump designed and manufactured for Saudi Aramco, a Saudi Arabia base oil company. The testing of the 10-stage high-speed and high-pressure API BB5 pumps took place at Kirloskarvadi, Maharashtra, which was witnessed by select officials from Thermax and Engineers India Limited (EIL). This pump was designed with motor rating of 900 kW having the capacity of 92 m?/ hour and 1603.9 metre differential head achieved at a speed of 4,483 revolutions per minute (RPM). Meanwhile, in May this year, Kirloskar Brothers won a repeat power pump order from the Turkish energy company CalikEnerji to supply pumps for its 230 MW Gardabani CCPP project in Georgia.

In a significant move, Kirloskar Brothers Limited (KBL) has launched the highly advanced i-CAN series of pumps, designed to reduce maintenance time and TCO for the small-scale industries. The seal-less and gland-less mono-block design of the pump enables it to cater to industries like ice-making plants, cold storages and industries involved in refrigeration-related businesses. The pump's compact yet sturdy design with less number of components helps it to minimize assembly and dismantling time while occupying less space. Commenting at the occasion of the launch, Sanjay Kirloskar, Chairman and MD, KBL said, "In the process industry, maintenance of pumps is a critical task. Normally this industry requires skilled manpower to handle pumps. In a major departure from the past practice, the i-CAN series of pumps brings in simplicity in operation as well as maintenance."

Further, KSB Pumps Ltd. has launched their Etanorm SYT pump series to the Indian market. This latest generation of single-stage volute casing pumps has been specially developed for applications in modern heat transfer systems and hot water circulation. Etanorm SYT pump sets handle hot water as well as mineral oil-based thermal fluids and synthetic thermal oils at temperatures of up to 350 degrees Celsius. They are particularly suited to the rough conditions experienced in heat transfer systems. The new pumps' stable rib design and reinforced bearings make them resistant to external forces. Meanwhile, this leading manufacturer of power-driven pumps and industrial valves has set up a cast iron foundry at its existing facilities in Vambori near Ahmednagar.

The Change

According to experts, the Indian pump industry, at one point of time, was not very conscious about modernisation and upgradation. All this has changed however with globalisation, which has opened the doors multinationals, coupled with growing concerns of pollution control, water and waste water treatment, and demand for energy-efficient systems. "Pump manufacturers in India are continuously improving to enhance productivity, quality and service. There is a lot of engineering expertise in pump manufacturing today so that we are able to offer a wide variety of very efficient products from a line-up of renowned manufacturers," says Shrikant Juvekar of Maharashtra Pumps, a Pune-based vendor for many leading brands. More heartening is the fact that the Indian pump industry is increasing its share in the world pump market.