As an engineer, I am familiar with many types of pump and recognise terms such as centrifugal pump, reciprocating pump and others that either describe the service performed by that particular pump (e.g. a slurry pump) or the manner in which it pumps (e.g. a screw pump). However, I was a bit thrown when I came across the term Durcometer Pumps.
Metering Pumps
Being familiar with metering pumps, I thought that the last part of the name might be the clue as to how these pumps function and what they are used for. Metering pumps move an exact, predetermined amount of (usually) liquid from one place to another. An example would be the pumps that inject chemicals into water as part of a water treatment process. There are several different designs of pump that can perform metering duties. A diaphragm pump could be used for example but that still does not explain this durco pump?
Try Maker’s Name
Sometimes, a particular make of pump becomes so well known for a certain use that all pumps of similar type get called by that maker’s name. This reasoning is how I eventually tracked them down and was able to source both the new Durcometer Pumps that our company needed and spare parts for our existing old Durcometer Pumps.
It was an interesting history lesson. The story started in Chicago in 1898 with the Hills-McCanna Company who made, amongst other things a range of pumps. They specialized in what they referred to as chemical proportioning pumps and force feed lubricators (in other words, metering pumps). The pumps were mainly of the diaphragm operated type.
Later, the Durco Pressure Products Division of Duriron Company took over and rebranded the pumps as DurcoMeter Pumps. Several more take overs occurred and the name was changed to The Durameter Pump Company.
Even more takeovers followed and the last was in 2005 by Milton Roy Company. They decided not to manufacture these old design Durcometer Pumps but, in order to satisfy the needs of numerous users across many industries, they licensed the designs to a company called Rutherford Pump Systems.
Rutherford Pump Systems now manufacture new duplicate pumps, spare parts and provide full support for all the old Durcometer Pumps under the new brand name of Durameter Legacy Pumps. In this way, that piece of American pumping history that started in 1898 lives on to this day and beyond.
