The success of IPR is rooted in its evolution from just renting diesel-driven dewatering pumps to designing and manufacturing fit-for-purpose solutions that are reliable and cost effective.
According to Lee Vine, MD of IPR, the traditional approach in the pump rental sector has been ‘take it or leave it’ – which does not address the specific needs of individual customers and applications.
“Learning from the many diverse applications that we encountered when starting out in the pump rental business, we built a depth of experience in mine dewatering – especially in the surface mining sector,” says Vine. “This informed how we developed our in-house engineering capability, so that we could offer customers bespoke solutions to meet their exact needs.”
This approach has developed a large customer base in all sectors, from mining and construction to wastewater and general industry. He highlights that each dewatering application has its own specific requirements, including the volume of water that needs to be pumped and the quality and composition of the water.
The presence of particles or larger solids, for instance, will affect the choice and specification of the pump. During an assessment of a customer’s operational requirements, the pump set’s materials of construction will also be considered, to deal with the prevailing level of water acidity and abrasiveness.
“There is also the flow rate and maximum head to be considered, as well as the mobility requirements – determining whether we should consider a skid-mounted or trailer-mounted design,” he says.
He notes that off-the-shelf products often only serve the customer’s best-case scenario and will fail to deliver the expected duty when conditions are more arduous. Also, customers will frequently need an urgent solution in the short term, but in the longer term must look for a design that is more sustainable.
“At IPR, we respond to short-, medium- and long-term requirements,” Vine says. “Our responsiveness and extensive fleet allow us to quickly install an urgent dewatering system, after which we can work with the customer to engineer a lasting solution.”
The company also has longstanding customers who were unable to source dewatering pump sets within a short lead time, so instead they opted not to rent and rather to procure their own pump sets. With its field experience, technical expertise and modern workshop, IPR can meet this need, by designing and building pump sets engineered specifically to suit the application. Its support services ensure that parts are readily available, and that regular maintenance can be conducted to ensure optimal uptime.
“The solid performance of our team and our solutions is demonstrated by the fact that many customers who have asked for custom-built pump sets have previously rented pumps from us,” says Vine. “They were so impressed with the performance and reliability of our units, that they have taken the next step and acquired their own assets.”
