Equipment Operators face hundreds of work list items while planning for scheduled maintenance events. For each item the owner must make a decision on whether to repair or replace the equipment to resolve the deficiency. In some circumstances, owners are unable to come up with a cost effective repair solution so they default to the […]
This article outlines the procedure to evaluate the fitness-for-service of corroded buried pipe, and explains what CC N-806 covers … and what it does not cover. What are the Damage Mechanisms in Metallic Buried Pipe? The inspection of a buried metallic pipe, after years of service, can reveal that the pipe has little if any […]
Refrigerated Liquefied Storage Tanks have been used for over 60 years in the industry. A significant number of these tanks store liquefied Propane and Butane, Ethylene and LNG and Ammonia. The stored fluids are at atmospheric pressures with temperatures which range from -45 F to -270 Failures of refrigerated tanks have been quite infrequent over […]
There are numerous challenges that Inspectors and Reliability Engineers face when developing Risk Based Asset Integrity Plans, such as: Identifying the applicable Damage Mechanisms Picking the correct Failure Mode(s) Determining the Probability of Failure Deciding how to mitigate risks to acceptable levels Industry documents give some guidance (i.e. API-571, API-580) but not the whole picture. […]
Ingersoll Rand Cone Oil Seals Compressor process shaft end seals are designed to seal the rotating assembly in the stationary compressor case to prevent the process gas in the compressor from escaping to the atmosphere and to prevent the atmosphere from getting into the process gas. Shaft end oil seals, as compared to the relatively […]
My previous blog on Equipment Health Monitoring (EHM) explains why EHM can be used to improve fatigue life of a coke drums. As explained in this blog, one of the critical locations to be monitored are the circumferential weld seams – where high thermal stresses occur during the operation of the drum. These high stresses over […]
Gerrit Buchheim, Manager of the Pono Division of Becht Engineering, has developed a practical and simple-to-use approach to prioritizing the inspection and replacement of equipment in High Temperature Hydrogen Attack (HTHA) service. This approach utilizes the existing and accepted “Nelson Curve”, but adapts it to better fit the realized operating conditions at an individual facility, […]
Proper inspection, maintenance and operation of aging equipment has become an important issue in today’s process and power industries. Industry codes and standards typically deal with the design of new equipment. More recently other codes and standards have been developed to deal with the repair, rerating or change of service of equipment dating back as […]
