This article will define a business case for achieving significant rotating equipment maintenance and energy cost reduction at industrial and municipal facilities.
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The third annual Product Innovation of the Year award was hotly contested again this year. The contest examined products entered into the marketplace between September 1, 2010 and August 31, 2011.
In the power industry, clean water is crucial for a variety of tasks, including extending the service life of turbine seals and protecting spray nozzles and heat transfer equipment. Raw water drawn from lakes, rivers and reservoirs must first be strained to create acceptable clean water for use. The power industry and other industries must continuously strain tens of thousands of gallons of water per minute to remove dirt and debris that can wreak havoc on critical process systems and equipment.
Growing infrastructures are creating more complex problems for municipalities than ever before, forcing them to search for a diverse range of system solutions to issues involving energy savings, maintenance savings and total life cycle cost analysis.
An 1,800 MW power station in the Midwest experienced constant trouble with four of its four-stage boiler feed pumps, which were driven by steam turbines and operated at variable speed to meet the required plant load.
In my experience, there are three types of maintenance philosophy regarding vibration programs: No philosophy at all, utmost attention with zeal, attention to particularly problematic units
The town of Walden rests on a high glacial plain in Colorado, just 20 miles from the Wyoming border in Jackson County. Situated in the center of a large open valley called North Park, the 734 residents (based on the 2000 census) of the town and the surrounding area refer to themselves as "North Parkers."
Electric drives are used in various applications in the oil and gas industry for varying motor speeds driving critical components, including pumps, fans and compressors. Both AC and DC drives are used, but AC units dominate most applications. This article explores some of the recent trends and issues in the European electric drives market.
Even when a redundant pumping system is in place, it can be advisable to monitor the condition of the operating units in critical applications where maintaining production depends on motor-pump reliability.
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.
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.
Sensors and automation passively participate in our everyday lives to improve comfort, add safety and reliability, and increase the efficiency of needed products and services. As the use of sensors and automation has proliferated throughout various industry sectors, these products have become reliable, economical and easy to maintain and service. Experienced personnel and suppliers can create, adapt or integrate their products and services for almost any application. The challenge becomes how we collect, correlate and translate this data into actionable information.
Production, distribution and refining applications in the oil and gas industry rely heavily on motor-driven pumps and pumping systems. Keeping electric motors driving critical operations at peak performance is vital to ensure maximum profitability.
Gulf Chemical & Metallurgical Corporation (Freeport, Texas), a subsidiary of the Eramet Group, is a recycler of spent petroleum catalysts and a leading producer of ferroalloys. The company applies hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical operations to recover molybdenum, vanadium, nickel and cobalt for reuse by major catalyst producers and steel manufacturers. Embarking on the road to improved equipment reliability represents a key aspect of a concerted strategic initiative for Gulf Chemical. The introduction of wireless technology and additional support has yielded successful outcomes for its facility.
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.
When it comes to pressure and flow, variable speed pumping applications can be divided into three basic categories. Constant pressure-variable flow (Cp-Vf) attempts to keep pressure relatively constant over a range of flows. Constant flow-variable pressure (Cf-Vp) tries to achieve the opposite by using varying pressure to keep flow constant. Variable pressure-variable flow (Vp-Vf) applications can accommodate a change in both.
Pulsation and water hammer can be limited with proper forethought and equipment.
Lubricated machines require clean, dry oil to work properly. Recent studies have determined that as much as 80 percent of all failures and wear problems that hydraulic and lubricated equipment experience are due to oil contamination. The most damaging forms of contamination are particulates and moisture.
A recent marketing survey found that 84.0 percent of satisfied customers would "jump ship" for a better deal if an opportunity arose. With markets becoming increasingly globalized, customer retention has become a critical part of business strategy. Companies need to ask themselves: What reason can I give this customer to stay, even if my competitor offers a cheaper price? The keys lie in keeping customers loyal to brands and products and ensuring a consistently outstanding customer experience.
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."
