Sluice / Slide Gate in Junction Chamber 2

[cr1973]

I will be installing a sluice or slide gate in a junction chamber where 2 sanitary sewers meet. The 60" and 36" sewer pipes do not continue through into the chamber, they instead end at the walls. So basically, the chamer is a huge empty cube. Recently an 8" thick wall was built frm the floor to the ceiling to seperate flows.

Now, we want to install a gate here to allow for sewage to bypass to the other pipe. Heads will be fairly low, 10 or 12' tops.

Should I go with a sluice or slide (what's the difference anyway)?
What materials are best for this corrosive environment?

 

[yogibear1]

We have some slide gates Waterman Industries (

http://www.watermanusa.com.

They are in our 10MG flow equalization tank. AWWA has Standards on slide gates; I know of AWWA C-501, and C563-04 (for composite materials); there may be other standards.

 

[kkcrowe]

I don't think you would want to contact Waterman...I just finished a job where we submitted their products. We had ordered 12 sluice gates from them last year, after recieving the thimbles, they went out of business. They seem to have a wonderful web site, but TRUST ME! We even sent people to their manufacturing facility to see what the problems were with our shipments...THEY ARE CLOSED! Anyway, we then contracted Hydro Gate to custom manufacture gates to fit the Waterman thimbles we had already installed. They did a great job and so far everything has been working great. NOW, on to your question about sluice gates vs. slide gates. Sluice gates only seal on one side, typically a cast iron gate with brass "wedges" that force the face of the gate against the frame where a brass face on the frame and gate seal against eachother. On a slide gate typically made of stainless steel, a flat plate "gate" slides inside two channels in the frame. Slide gates can be flush mounted - that is, against a wall, they can also be channel mounted where the frame is cast into or bolted to the channel walls. Usually, a sluice gate is only mountable flush to a wall. This can be done by bolting it to a thimble that is cast into the concrete or by using a type of threaded anchor into the wall. As far as leakage, slide gates seem to seal much better, that is my opinion. I have installed sluice gates and slide gates in many water and waste water treatment facilities, it seems that with large heads, the best option is a sluice gate, but for low heads and corrosive enviroments, the stainless slide gate is the best option. Fontaine is a pretty good manufacture, they are out of Canada, but their service techs are very knowledgeable and their product is pretty reliable. One more note, the AWWA alowable leakage for slide gates is .1 gpm per linear foot of sealing surface. The same calculation for sluice gates when the head pressure is helping to seal the gate, however if the head pressure is trying to break the seal on a sluice gate, expect more leakage, they raise the alowable to .2 gpm per linear foot.

 

[yogibear1]

Thanks for the update on Waterman. The referenced project was completed in 2000, and we've not had any reason to contact them since that time. Your due diligence paid off. Well done.

 

[cr1973]

Thanks for the info KKCrowe!

 

[bimr]

For what it's worth, Waterman is back in business.

http://www.watermanusa.com/OurHIstory.htm

 

[BluDev]

Rodney Hunt is another well-known sluice/slide gate manufacturer.