Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/929831
28 | FEBRUARY 2018 | WWT | www.wwtonline.co.uk to be easily set and adjusted? This is just a flavour of the homework that you should undertake before appointing a hire partner. 3 Speed of response is the key Hire equipment must be ready on time and at short notice, especially in time-critical breakdown situations. This requires a provider with a large, readily available fleet of equipment and the right logistics capabilities to deliver that equipment fast. Does your equipment hire team understand that getting processes up and running is your number one priority? Seek out a hire partner that can get equipment mobilised on a same-day basis and be in operation at your site within days. 4 Simplify installation Hire equipment must be easy to move, fast to install and straightforward to commission, so check to see that your provider has developed its equipment range with these priorities in mind. Palletised or containerised systems simplify logistics, while robust, weatherproof enclosures maximise location flexibility. Does your hire company supply components that are pre-integrated and pre-tested, such as large tanks delivered with appropriate bunds and with filling equipment and safety systems already in place? 5 Compatibility counts There's nothing worse than receiving your hired equipment and finding that there is incompatibility between yours and the hirer's equipment connections. The first duty of a responsible hire organisation is to ensure that this never happens. Check to see that your provider offers a broad range of pipework and connectors to make they need to select, install and manage their system. For example, does your provider offer equipment packages built to meet your technical specifications, or are they able to make recommendations based on a site survey? 7 Service flexibility The operators of water and wastewater treatment systems may opt to hire dosing equipment for many different applications and many different reasons. To meet their requirements, the equipment provider must be flexible and responsive, able to meet your lead times and be prepared to cover the expected hire period no matter how long or short. on-site integration simple and straightforward, whether the system needs to link to existing dosing lines or come complete with its own. Moreover, establish whether or not the controls are designed to operate independently or will need to link to existing sensors as well as the on- or off-site control systems. 6 Do they know what they're talking about? Dosing equipment design, installation and maintenance is a specialised activity and hire customers should expect a comprehensive range of engineering and technical services from their providers to ensure they get all the support The knowledge: chemical dosing SUMMARY Why should you hire rather than buy chemical dosing equipment? Hiring could be your best option in the following instances: • Equipment will oc- casionally fail in service, so a prompt response from a hire company will ensure early resumption of process operations, giving onsite staff more time for diagnosis and remediation. • When testing a new process that will requires new treatment strate- gies, it may be premature to invest in equipment based on lab trials. Hiring a system for field trials can avoid the risk of wasting money on ineffective or inappropriate equipment. • When a site has a sea- sonal dosing requirement - such as algal bloom – putting in place permanent equipment may be waste- ful if it remains unused for large parts of the year. • The cost of hiring a system represents opera- tional rather than capital expenditure, which may be beneficial when facing Capex constraints. Hiring can also reduce labour and maintenance costs. • When refurbishing a treatment works, tempo- rary equipment may be needed in order to enable continuation of dosing dur- ing the changeover. • MORE INFO WES is a well-established independent company specialising in the design, engineering and supply of chemical dosing systems and ancillary products and services. wes.ltd.uk A DS1500 chemical dosing system