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I'm looking for a circulation pump in a very high pressure loop and having trouble finding one. I'm hoping I just don't know the correct search term and someone can point me to it.

The absolute pressure (what the housing needs to be rated to) is 100 bar / 1500 psi, but the pressure rise created by the pump is less than 1 bar / 15 psi.

I think a centrifugal pump would be appropriate, it would just need an extra beefy housing and appropriate seals. Is there a common name for this type of pump?

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    $\begingroup$ This looks like a resource-hunting question. Such questions are prone to becoming out-dated, and are therefore considered off-topic for this site. $\endgroup$
    – Wasabi ♦
    Jul 18, 2018 at 1:10
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    $\begingroup$ I would argue that this is different than, for example, which library to use at stack overflow. The best library, to say, parse html will almost certainly be different in two years than it is today. This is because its based on what people are working on. The best type of pump though is based on engineering fundamentals- you can analytically show that a centrifugal pump is superior to a piston pump for low differential pressure. In this case, I'm not sure what other constraints may apply to change the answer. $\endgroup$
    – ericksonla
    Jul 18, 2018 at 2:35
  • $\begingroup$ @Wasabi I'm not sure if that would fit as resource hunting. It's seems like it might fall more under "terminology" questions. He isn't necessarily looking for us to source a pump for him; he just wants to know what he should call the type of pump he's looking for, if I understand the question correctly. ericksonla, you might want to consider adding a "Terminology" tag if you're just trying to find the name for this. $\endgroup$
    – JMac
    Jul 18, 2018 at 11:03
  • $\begingroup$ I don't have a good name for such a pump, but you might find that companies specialising in reverse osmosis systems for desalination either have or can point you at something, as this is pretty much exactly the use case with those membranes (Well, they also have to deal with seriously corrosive working fluid). $\endgroup$
    – Dan Mills
    Jul 18, 2018 at 14:22

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What you are looking for is a circulation pump.

Types commonly found in central water heating systems where the system is maintained at pressure (to detect leaks in heating or supply flow for hot water consumption) and then a pressure differential is applied with the pump to circulate the water around the loop.

Also magnetically driven pumps are popular for sealed fluid circuits due to pressure, corrosive, toxic or radioactive nature of the fluids or need to maintain cleanliness, these systems may have specifications in common with your needs and a magnetically driven pump is often robustly manufactured for the other demands.

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  • $\begingroup$ Circulation pumps a pretty huge category, including the many of the centrifugal pumps I mentioned in the question. Do you know of a sub-category focused on extreme pressures? The central water heat systems type you mentioned seem to have maximum pressures of <30 bar from what I can find. $\endgroup$
    – ericksonla
    Jul 20, 2018 at 22:45
  • $\begingroup$ @ericksonla You need to supply more details if you are hoping for a better answer. You asked for the category of pump, You do not indicate nature and temperature of fluid, service life, cost, quantity, these will all impact choice. If you want a sure fire solution get a molten sodium pump for nuclear reactor research, if this is too specialised then indicate what your use case is. $\endgroup$
    – KalleMP
    Jul 22, 2018 at 18:35
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    $\begingroup$ googling circulting pumpe and 100bar, this was one of the first hits: sulzer.com/en/shared/products/2017/03/28/12/53/… KSB also seem to offer high pressure circulating pumps. I suggest you call a manufacturer and talk to one their application engineers. That's what they are there for. $\endgroup$
    – mart
    Jul 23, 2018 at 14:58
  • $\begingroup$ The problem with referring to all circulation pumps is that most circulation pumps do not fit the two requirements I laid out- low delta P but, high absolute P. The link mart suggested, for example, cannot pump <1 bar dP over most of its flow range, according to p4 of the link. $\endgroup$
    – ericksonla
    Jul 23, 2018 at 18:54
  • $\begingroup$ @ericksonla I think a perceived minimum pressure limit you desire can be handled with a variable speed motor driving the pump below specifications in most cases, with feedback is important. You are only limited in material selection and shaft sealing unless you enlighten us further. $\endgroup$
    – KalleMP
    Jul 28, 2018 at 23:47

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