Tried a new pump impeller material on the old cutterhead dredge in Mobile Bay

Switched from the standard polyurethane to a ceramic-coated steel impeller after the third failure in a season, and it's lasted over 800 hours without any noticeable wear, so what's the toughest material you've run in sandy, abrasive conditions?

3 comments

3 Comments

palmer.zara1mo agoProlific Poster

We had good luck with a hardened chrome alloy on our suction dredge... it outlasted the standard stuff by a huge margin in that shell and gravel mix. That ceramic coating sounds like it's holding up even better though.

angelac631mo ago

Our old dredge wore out three standard linings before we gave up on them.

lily971mo ago

Man, that ceramic coated steel sounds wild! I remember a buddy who worked on a dredge in the Gulf swore by some vulcanized rubber lining after everything else got chewed up, said it was quieter too. @palmer.zara, your chrome alloy story reminds me of a time we tried a weird composite blend but it just cracked under pressure - guess some stuff just isn't meant for that grit.