This article will define a business case for achieving significant rotating equipment maintenance and energy cost reduction at industrial and municipal facilities.
Topic Sponsor
Top Instrumentation Articles
In the foothills of the Andes, among the sprawling vineyards of picturesque Mendoza, Argentina, stands an innocuous equipment cabinet located by the side of an infrequently used mountain pass. The cabinet's superficial surface rust belies its importance as one of the most significant technological developments in modern day corrosion prevention. The cubicle, battered from years of an abrasive cocktail of arid Patagonian winds and coarse earth, hides the cradle of a revolutionary approach to cathodic protection. The equipment within the cabinet resulted in an entirely new range of products.
In the oil and gas industry, custody transfer transactions involve transporting physical substance from one operator to another, including transferring raw and refined petroleum between tanks and tankers, tankers and ships and other transactions. An accurate account of the amount of material transferred is of great value to both the company delivering the material and the eventual recipient. This is especially true in bunker fuel oil delivery since a ship's bunker contributes to the ship's operating cost.
While driving a car with the gas pedal to the floor and then controlling your speed using the brake is obviously inefficient, many facilities use the approach for pump control. Flow control with throttling or restrictive devices sacrifices energy efficiency and results in unnecessary costs. However, with an understanding of basic principles, an analysis of the specific application, information about available control solutions and evaluation of technologically advanced equipment, facilities can make a quantum leap in improving the efficiency and economy of pumping operations.
Explore the current condition of SCADA reports and some new technology that will improve the quality of those reports.
What Are Your Vibration Monitoring Goals?
Identifying goals before starting is key to designing a process tailored to specific needs. What are you hoping to accomplish by monitoring vibration? How would you like to acquire data? What are you going to do with the data? These important questions should be addressed before moving forward.
Packaged pump systems are gaining popularity due to their space saving design, simplified installation, single source responsibility and advanced control options with communication ability.
The 4-20mA current loop is used to transmit analog data representing various process variables like level, pressure, temperature or flow. Although conceptually simple, a 4-20mA current loop can be tricky to troubleshoot. Current flows in a single direction through each device in the loop.
The past may be prologue to the future, but the time between the two seems increasingly short. In the past, labor, capital and raw materials were considered the underpinnings of wealth creation. Today, real-time process knowledge and innovative management strategies have become far more important for creating value, as evident in the headlines above. Accordingly, the time for systemic change is now. . . the opportunity to reinvent industrial manufacturing and the products and services that surround it have never been greater since the beginning of the industrial revolution.
The Village of Mundelein, Ill., 35 miles northwest of Chicago, had a growing water demand and needed options for managing the increasing demand.
Latest Instrumentation Articles
This article will define a business case for achieving significant rotating equipment maintenance and energy cost reduction at industrial and municipal facilities.
Last month we reviewed the pump selection criteria for a closed loop circulation system (Vp-Vf). This month we will take a look at a similar application that adds some elevation to the equation.
Starting can have a significant effect on the life of the winding insulation of an AC motor. For this reason, motor manufacturers often limit the number of starts per hour and may also require a minimum run time and off time between starts. There are two events that occur during across the line starting that can reduce insulation life.
This article explores the use of condition monitoring at the UPM-Kymmene's Wisaforest pulp and paper mill in Finland. Production capacity is 800,000 air dried tons per annum (ADt/a) of pulp and 180,000 ADt/a of kraft and sack papers.
In the last decade, ultrasonic flowmeters have grown in popularity in laboratory and process areas as a cost-effective, noninvasive alternative for measuring the velocity and flow rates of liquids and gases. Just as the price of Blu-RayTM disc players has plummeted, the cost of ultrasonic flowmeters has dropped so much that users have been able to replace their older technologies with what were formerly expensive devices.
The service department of a variable frequency drives manufacturer frequently sees the following scenario: A frustrated user calls with what he perceives to be a defective piece of equipment. As the technician begins probing for information, the user's frustration boils over, often with an exclamation along the lines of "what a piece of junk!" As the service technician asks the pertinent questions, the exasperated user relays the details of a drive that is continually tripping on a fault until the user is at the end of his rope, not knowing what to do.
Released in January 2010, the SDT270 Ultrasonic Detector, in conjunction with its powerful database software, gives the earliest indication of bearing re-lubrication requirements, bearing failure, and pump cavitation.
Identifying the source of vibration by following the amplitude: the case of a company that thought the problem was a pump impeller, but, in fact, the problem was over 15-ft away and not a pump at all.
There are several ways to control two identical, parallel pumps operating under variable frequency control in pumping applications.
Columns and Blogs
In this multi-part series, we will investigate several aspects of centrifugal pump efficiency.
First of Five Parts
Since the original publication of this draft standard in the January 2008 issue of Pumps & Systems, I have received feedback, encouragement, numerous questions and criticism. The draft listed three basic levels of repair.
The McGraw-Hill scientific dictionary [5] states that a volute is "a spiral casing for a centrifugal pump... designed so that speed will be converted to pressure."
