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RF MacDonald Co. offers sales, packaged systems design, service, installation, and parts for our customers!

To request information or a quote, please use our Information/Quote request form.

BACKGROUND: Bolthouse Farms, a worldwide leader in the fresh carrot industry, was faced with the dilemma of re-building their carrot wash pump every six months due to extreme abrasion caused by sand laden wash water.  A failure often required replacing the entire pump and motor assembly as it would be beyond repair.  This was obviously getting very expensive fast and old even faster.

PROJECT: R. F. MacDonald Co., the leading pump distributor in California’s Central Valley, serviced by our Fresno and Modesto offices, was called upon to determine if there was anything we could do.  R.F. MacDonald Co. is the authorized distributor of KSB Pumps, including the submersible pump line.  KSB is one of the largest pump manufacturers in the world, and is part of Georgia Iron Works.   This relationship has made it possible for KSB to offer their pumps in some very exotic metal alloys.  For this application KSB and R.F. MacDonald Co. offered Bolthouse Farms a submersible pump constructed entirely of the KSB exclusive metallurgy known as “NORIDUR”.  This metallurgy has proven to have some of the greatest abrasion resistant characteristics known today.

R.F. MacDonald Co.’s proposal on this project was both higher on initial cost and longer in lead-time than other offerings.  But Bolthouse Farms was convinced that the higher initial cost would soon be the very best deal if the “ NORIDUR” was as tough as we said it would be.  Bolthouse honored R.F. MacDonald Co. with their purchase order for two of the quoted pumps.  Along with this order for the two pumps, Bolthouse felt that it would be best if they ordered a complete set of spare parts to have on hand based on their past experiences with the pumps for this service.

This story all took place almost four years ago now.   On a recent visit to the Bolthouse plant, a maintenance mechanic who use to spend a great deal of his time on the wash pumps, asked, in a joking manner, if it might be possible to return the spare parts they purchased four years ago.   He indicated “the pumps have been running full time for almost four years now and have not required any major repairs”.
There has been…………….. NO NEED FOR SPARE PARTS!