Just saw a huge difference in dredge pump performance after switching cutterheads

I run a small dredge operation up near Green Bay, and for the past 6 months we were getting maybe 60% efficiency on our pump with the old straight-blade cutterhead. Then I swapped to a new spiral-design cutterhead two weeks ago, and production jumped to 85% on the same material. The old cutterhead just couldn't break up the clay layers we hit last fall. Anyone else see that kind of jump from changing cutterhead style?

2 comments

2 Comments

daniel55226d ago

Nah, that sounds more like a material difference than a cutterhead upgrade.

pat_park26d ago

daniel552, "material difference" are you serious? You really think clay just magically changed its composition from fall to spring without anyone touching a thing? That spiral cutterhead is doing the heavy lifting here, it breaks up those sticky layers way better than any straight blade ever could.