The Use of 3D Printed Impellers in Small Industrial Pump Testing

H20 for Humanity is a non-profit organization that provides small scale water treatment facilities to rural villages in India. These facilities currently use a 120 psi pump operating at 25% efficiency to provide water to a reverse osmosis filter. To improve the system performance, the pump impellers were redesigned to utilize an increased pump speed. The newly designed impellers were manufactured with a 3D printer to reduce manufacturing cost and enable rapid prototyping. One of the purposes of the experiment was to determine whether 3D printed impellers were an effective method of testing pump performance. It was concluded that 3D printed impellers appropriately represent the injection molded impellers. The 3D printed impellers matched the performance of the injection molded impellers with a difference of 1.8% when compared to the experimental data collected by the injection molded impellers. 3D printing is not without challenges. There are a myriad of print settings that required customization in order to achieve a quality printed impeller. Additionally, the inlet cavitation limit for the 3D printed impellers closely matched the performance of the injection molded impellers.