Fairbanks Nijhuis builds biggest pumproom in history

Pentair, a global leader in the treatment, transfer and flow of water and other fluids and manufacturer of high-quality fire pumps, is pleased to announce that the biggest pump room Pentair’s Fairbanks Nijhuis has ever build, is on its way to Saudi Arabia. The pump room is six meters wide and 20 meters long and equipped with four fire water pumps and two jockey pumps. The firewater pumps each have a capacity of 1000 m3 per hour. 



Commissioned by Jacobs Engineering in Leiden (the Netherlands) the pump room will be placed at the Ma'aden Phosphate Company Wa'al Al Shamal in Saudi Arabia. Fairbanks Nijhuis is responsible for the design and manufacturing of the pumps, the assembly of pump sets and the pump room, inspection, testing and installation of the pump sets and also the supervision of the installation of the pump chambers on site. Sales Director Niels van den Hurk "At first, Jacobs Engineering was only interested in buying four separate pumps. We then presented them a complete solution: a prefabricated pump room. By building the pump sets into a pump room, we took the client a lot of work form their hands. Otherwise, they would have had to do the engineering and assembly of the pump room by themselves and on site. Now it's a matter of assembling the four parts together. The customer only needs to provide a foundation and electricity. Last week, the customer has inspected the pump room and they were more than pleased with the results."



The concept of a prefabricated pump room is not new, however the size of this pump room is. Project manager Rob Reiling: "This is the largest pump room we have ever built in the history of Fairbanks Nijhuis. The pumping chamber consists of four precast segments that are sent separately to the customers location. On site, the segments are combined and all parts will be connected again. The pump contains four firewater pumps - three diesel driven and one electric driven - and two jockey pumps. The latter are booster pumps to keep the fire-fighting system going. The pump chamber is designed according to customer specifications in conjunction with the relevant international regulations NFPA20 and FM." Engineer André Sikkink. “Our specific challenge was the enormous size of the pump room. Because the pumping chamber has to be dismantled before shipment, this was quite a challenge for engineering.The assembly of the pumping chamber had to be done elsewhere, as there was no room in Winterswijk to assemble a pump chamber of such dimensions.” 



The pump room will be transported to Saudi Arabia. Niels van den Hurk: "The pump chamber provides for the extinguishing water supply for a phosphate mine in Al Khabra, about 50 kilometers north east of Turaif and 13 kilometers north of the processing facilities at Umm Wu'al. The pump room is part of a huge investment. The costs for the pump chamber amount to 1.8 million dollars. It is a huge site with an area of 38 km². This fire-extinguishing system is a requirement, but in fact the customer bought our solution hoping that they never have to use it. "