Maintenance & Reliability
How Cr compounds discolor refractory brick walls of an ethylene cracking furnace
Unusual pink coloration was noticed on the entire refractory brick wall in the radiant section of an ethylene cracking furnace of a petrochemical plant. The problem was investigated by evaluating the ..
HP Reliability: The true cost of poor quality
Knoxville, Tennessee-based System Improvements, Inc., has been in the forefront of teaching structured root-cause analysis throughout the world. System Improvements, Inc. has used its proprietary soft..
How caustic stress leads to failures of incinerator caustic spray nozzles
Frequent failures of the waste spray nozzles in incinerators result in accelerated degradation of the refractory lining, requiring unscheduled shutdowns for repairs. A study was carried out to identify the factors that contributed to the nozzle failure and to prevent the reoccurrence of similar failures in the future.
Extend heat exchanger lifecycle with hyper-duplex stainless steel
Intensifying performance demands in refineries, coupled with the ongoing decline in crude oil quality, require a new and improved duplex SS grade to withstand increasingly tough operating conditions. This need has led to the development of hyper-duplex stainless steels.
HP Reliability: Consider oil-resistant cable terminations to increase electric motor reliability
Most engineers are familiar with adhesive-coated insulating tape used by electricians in the field and maintenance shop. If we use this tape in the engine compartment of an automobile, it will soon be..
HP Engineering Case Histories: Case 83: What are useful questions to ask before starting a vibration analysis?
Periodically, this author receives questions from readers throughout the world addressing what performance issues could be wrong with a centrifugal compressor that is vibrating. Note: It is impossible..
HP Innovations
Corrosion prevention for high-TAN refiningFor petroleum refiners, improving profitability by processing high-total-acid-number (high-TAN) crude oils requires an investment in high-temperature corrosio..
HP Reliability: Does Pareto’s 80/20 rule apply to reliability engineers?
In the 1970s, an oil refinery discovered that 7% of its 3,200 process pumps experienced a disproportionate share of the facility’s yearly pump outage events. Slightly over 60% of the money spent ..
Sulzer acquires weld overlay company Interweld
The integration will start after closing, which is expected in the beginning of 2015. All employees will be retained, ensuring ongoing customer dedication in the weld overlay marketplace.
Optimize amine sweetening with an optical O2 analyzer
After extraction, raw natural gas must go through processing before it is suitable for industrial, commercial and residential usage. The first stage of gas processing is known as “sweetening,..
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