Reliability Centered Maintenance — What is it?

What you will learn from this article. 

• Meanings of ‘loss of function’, ‘failure modes’ and ‘failure patterns’.
• RCM provides a way to select the best maintenance strategy for new plant and equipment.
• PM Optimisation, a shorter version of RCM, is used on existing plant and equipment with sufficient known failure history.
• The RCM process and procedure is introduced.
• How to put RCM outcomes into workplace practice.

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Oil — How Clean Does it Have to Be?

Clean, dry oil can extend equipment life between failure up to 8 – 10 times the normal operating life. Timken, the bearing manufacturer, reports that reducing water levels from 100 ppm (parts per million) to 25 ppm increases bearing life 2 times. British hydraulics research indicates that if solids contamination with particles larger than 5 microns (0.005 mm or 0.0002”) is reduced from the range of 5,000 – 10,000 particles per milliliter of oil to 160 – 320 particles, the machine life is increased 5 times. [Read more…]

Tools to Focus on Plant Reliability

The focus of maintenance has changed from repairing equipment to keeping it running for longer between breakdowns. This requires more consideration of how to get longer running life between repairs, i.e. higher reliability, on a machine. To accomplish this a number of ‘tools’ have been invented and developed to allow maintainers to pinpoint problems and fix them. In this article three of the most effective ‘tools’ will be introduced. Root cause analysis, Weibull analysis and lifecycle simulation can be used to help organisations achieve proactive approaches to maintenance or adopt a “reliability based approach” to maintenance.  [Read more…]

Job Safety on Hazardous & Dangerous Work

See www.jsaprograms.com for innovation in hazard control.

Doing a job safely is no accident! Like all good outcomes safety is a result of good planning. As the Chinese philosopher Confucius said, “In all things success depends on previous preparation and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.” If you want safe work it needs to be planned as part of the job.

The other important fact about safety is that it is a personal responsibility. It is up to you to do the job safely. There is not a manager or supervisor in the world that wants to go to prison or be fined for a death or maiming because of his negligence. That means people in-charge want jobs done safely too. All they ask is that the safety procedures and practices used on the job be the least that are adequate while still meeting all the safety issues.  [Read more…]

Centrifugal Pump Life Extension – The Volute

What readers will learn from this article.

• Pump volute problems and fixes.
• Pump set-up and piping connection issues to get right.
• Process conditions that will cause problems.
• What to watch for with pump shaft designs.

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Heat Exchanger Design and Use

What readers will learn from this article.

• Basic theory of heat exchange across walls.
• Necessary properties of fluids to make heat exchangers work.
• Protecting and checking heat exchangers against corrosion.
• Issues with using shell and tube heat exchangers.
• Issues with using plate heat exchangers.

This article introduces readers to heat transfer in heat exchangers. It explains the concepts of temperature gradients across walls and parallel- current and counter-current flows. Both shell-and-tube and plate heat exchanges are discussed along with their common operational problems and remedies.

Shell-and-tube and plate heat exchangers (HXCH’s) are recuperative type devices, meaning that flowing fluids exchange heat through a dividing wall. The exchange of heat occurs from the hotter liquid to the cooler one. The hotter liquid is at a higher energy level than the colder liquid and the energy flows from hot to cold in an attempt to reach a steady equilibrium state at an intermediate temperature. [Read more…]

Air Compressor Operation & Care

What readers will learn from this article.

• Basic theory of reciprocating compressor operation.
• Introduction into work and power calculations for a compressor.
• Explanation of Free Air Deliver (FAD).
• Issues with using rotary screw compressors.
• Issues with using reciprocating compressors.

Compressed air is one of the most used service fluids in industry. This article introduces the basic design concepts of an air compressor and discusses some of the common problems and solutions found in both reciprocating (piston goes up and down) and rotary screw (twin, meshed, rotating, helix) air compressors. [Read more…]

Hazardous areas for dusts and flammables

Many explosions in the processing, manufacturing and bulk materials handling industries involve flammable gases or vapours and explosive dusts or fibres. Such chemicals are known as hazardous materials. This article provides a basic overview of the design requirements for hazardous areas.

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