Pump for slurries

Claim 1

Positive displacement pump for pumping thick slurries having cylinder with a plunger reciprocable in a direction therein, to define a plunger chamber of volume varying with the location of said plunger, a chamber inlet conduit to the plunger chamber, a gravity biased ball valve connection to said inlet conduit allowing flow only toward said chamber, a chamber outlet conduit from the plunger chamber, a gravity ball valve connected to said chamber outlet conduit allowing flow only out of said chamber, means for reciprocating said plunger, each of said conduits projecting from said chamber transverse to the reciprocation direction of said plunger, each of said conduits terminating in an outwardly directed chamber flange having four bolts holes defining a square with the conduit opening at the center, the gravity ball valve connected to said chamber outlet conduit being provided with a valve inlet conduit extending transverse to the flow direction through said valve, said valve inlet conduit terminating in an outwardly directed valve flange having four bolt holes with the conduit opening at the center for registration with those on the flange of said chamber outlet conduit, said valve flange bolt holes being located to mount said ball valve with its flow direction parallel to one of four directions at angular intervals of 90° relative to the reciprocation direction of said plunger, the gravity ball valve connected to said chamber inlet conduit being provided with a valve outlet conduit extending transverse to the flow direction through said valve, said valve outlet conduit terminating in an outwardly directed flange having four bolt holes with the conduit opening at the center, arranged for registration with those on the flange of said chamber inlet conduit, said last mentioned valve flange bolt holes being located to mount said last mentioned ball valve with its flow direction at one of four directions at angular intervals of 90° relative to the reciprocation direction of said plunger, said ball valves being bolted to said plunger chamber conduits through the holes in cooperating flanges so that the flow direction and sense is substantially the same in both valves, whereby, said plunger chamber can be mounted either horizontally or vertically as necessary for a given pumping environment.