Binkelman and Baldor-Dodge Team With a Solution at Toledo Water Treatment
More than half a million people in Toledo, Ohio, and the surrounding area use an average of 70 million gallons of water a day. And it’s the responsibility of the city of Toledo’s Department of Public Utilities water treatment plant to make sure the water, pumped from Lake Erie, is safe. But with aging and outdated equipment being used in a key purification process, that job was getting more difficult. So when funds became available for an upgrade, plant management turned to a trusted local distributor to help them find a high- performance solution that was easy
to use, easy to maintain and energy efficient.
Andy McClure, plant administrator for the Collins Park facility, says 12 mechanical variable speed drive systems, installed in 1941, power fully submerged paddles on a 60-foot-long shaft in four large treatment basins. These paddles stir added chemicals in a process known as flocculation, one of the most common steps in removing contaminants from drinking water. The process induces particles to collide and clump together into larger and more easily removable “floc.”
The mechanical system was an early way to achieve variable speed control, but McClure says the PIVs are well past their prime.
