How The Drive Works

The motor turns an outer magnet assembly. Inside a sealed containment housing, an inner magnet turns with the pump rotor. Torque crosses the housing wall without anything passing through it.

Because nothing rotates through the casing, there is no shaft seal, no gland and no leak path. The pumped liquid stays inside a closed head.

Where It Earns Its Place

Magnetic drive is worth specifying where a leak costs more than the pump.

  • Solvents and reagents where vapour escape is a safety or quality problem
  • Thermal oil circuits, where a leak on a hot line is a fire risk
  • Analytical and laboratory duty where contamination must be avoided
  • Small dosing and circulation loops that would otherwise need frequent seal changes
  • Installations that run unattended for long periods

The Micro Gear Version

On the micro pump range, a magnetic coupling drives an external gear set. Flow is proportional to speed, which makes the pump a metering device when driven by a variable speed drive.

Applications include circulation loops for heating, cooling, filtering and degassing, metering of additives, coatings and lubricants, and transfer duty where the liquid must not be altered. PEEK gears are available where metal gears are unsuitable.

See the SKQB Micro Pump specification →

The Heat Transfer Version

The same principle is used on the heat transfer line, which is rated for hot water and hot oil duty to 350 degrees Celsius. Builds run from 90 W at 8 m head to 500 W at 40 m head, at 1400 or 2800 rpm.

On hot oil this is not a convenience, it is the reason the pump survives. There is no seal to degrade at temperature.

See the Hot Oil Pump specification →

What Magnetic Drive Cannot Do

It does not tolerate dry running. Without liquid there is nothing to lubricate the internal bearing surfaces, and the pump can be damaged quickly.

It does not like abrasive solids, which wear the internals and can decouple the magnets. And it has a torque limit: overload the pump and the magnets slip rather than stall the motor, which protects the drive but stops the flow.