Cas d’application
Availability and guaranteed hygiene required
Asklepios sees itself as one of the leading international clinic chains. The company is responsible for more than 90 institutions overall, over 30 day clinics, 20,000 beds and 32,000 members of staff in Germany, the USA and, in future, China. Around a million patients entrust their health to Asklepios each year. With these figures and with a turnover of around €2 billion, Asklepios considers itself to be the largest private hospital chain in Germany and Europe.
The Situation
The planners of the new city hospital at Bad Wildungen have also implemented a dedicated hygiene management system for the water supply infrastructure. The supply measures include stagnation-free pipe unions and circulation conduits to every single tap. The water is heated to 70°C for thermal disinfection and, as required in the DVGW (German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water) regulations W 551 and W 553, reaches every point in the network (Legionella suppression). The installed pump technology is naturally also expected to conform to the high-quality and guaranteed hygiene standards. Not least, the most important requirement is maximum availability according to Peter Lass, on-site chief fitter from Klum GmbH: "It would be unthinkable to lose the water supply in a hospital, for instance, even for a short period."
The Grundfos Solution
The city hospital is fitted with two Hydro 2000 boosters: one (speed controlled) is responsible for the supply of potable water, the other circulates demineralised water around a separate system at a constant speed and pressure.
The Hydro 2000 range developed by Grundfos is a flexible modular system. The boosters also meet the hygiene regulations of the potable water regulations (including no dead spaces, automatic pump change, forced feed through the membrane pressure vessel).
The Hydro 2000 series is generally fitted with high-pressure CR pumps which have an impressiveefficiency rating of up to 82%. Only top-quality materials are used - stainless steel pump hydraulics and GGG spheroidal iron top and base sections manufactured using the lost wax casting process. The stainless steel distribution pipes (grade 1.4571) on the intake and discharge sides are produced using the orbital welding method which guarantees particularly smooth, clean welded seams. The distributor outlets are also connected using a necking technique, which also offers hydraulic and hygiene benefits.
The Outcome
Hydro booster systems have been awarded the GWP TS7 hygiene certificate by the Hygieneinstitut des Ruhrgebiets on account of their design benefits. For the responsible company, this seal of hygiene represents an "additional assurance and therefore an additional reason to choose a Grundfos booster" according to foremanKlaus Grohal.
But Grundfos doesn't just supply boosters. It also supplies pumps for cooling, heating and wastewater systems. This has its benefits, for example planners need only negotiate with one supplier for all their building services. "With just one supplier, the negotiations from the tender to delivery and fitting to commissioning are a lot simpler. In addition, Grundfos provides excellent support in implementation planning," says Klaus Grohal. Furthermore, commissioning is a lot quicker when it is single-sourced. Last, but not least, stocking spare parts is far more cost-effective. According to Andreas Köhler, service engineer at Klum GmbH: "Incorporating the pumps into the central control system is obviously easier when using units from the same manufacturer and fewer errors are made if problems arise. I only need to carry out programming and/or adjust the interfaces once."