Environment & Safety Gas Processing/LNG Maintenance & Reliability Petrochemicals Process Control Process Optimization Project Management Refining

Bloch, Heinz P.

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff, Montgomery, Texas

Heinz P. Bloch resides in Montgomery, Texas. He retired as Exxon Chemical’s Regional Machinery Specialist for the U.S. and has authored or co-written more than 780 publications, among them 23 comprehensive books on practical machinery management, failure analysis, failure avoidance, compressors, steam turbines, pumps, oil mist lubrication and optimized lubrication for industry. Mr. Bloch holds BS and MS degrees (cum laude) in mechanical engineering from the Newark College of Engineering (NCE). He is one of 10 inaugural inductees into NCE’s Hall of Fame, which honors its most distinguished alumni.

HP Reliability: A 'hundred-plus points' to improve pump reliability, Part 3

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

Last month's column addressed items 35 to 68. Here we present items 69 to 102. F. Mechanical improvement options continued 69. In lieu of item 68, strongly consider using Vespel CR6100 carbon fil..

HP Reliability: A 'hundred-plus points' to improve pump reliability, Part 2

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

Last month's column addressed items 1 ? 34. Here we present items 35 to 68. C. Lubrication issues, continued 35. On grease-lubricated couplings, verify that only approved coupling greases are use..

HP Reliability: A 'hundred-plus points' to improve pump reliability

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

In the September 2003 issue of HP ("Letters to the Editor,") we had promised to provide reminders of "things being done" by users that consistently achieve high pump reliability. The point was made th..

HP Reliability: Consider composite materials in centrifugal pumps

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

Fluid processing industries have embraced the use of current- generation composite materials in centrifugal pumps to increase efficiency, improve mean-time- between- repair (MTBR), and reduce repair c..

HP Reliability: Upgrade your compressor antisurge control valves

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

Compressor “surge” is a low-flowphenomenon known to exist in “dynamic,” i.e., centrifugal and axialcompressors found in petrochemical plants, liquefied natural gas(LNG) facilities ..

HP Reliability: Pay attention to pipe spring hangers and supports

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

Hanger and spring support-relatedinstallation oversights are responsible for many excessive pipestress incidents. Piping-induced loads will often cause pumpcasings to deflect. Consequently, important ..

HP Reliability: Apply optimized method of stiffening pump base plates

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

In the late 1990s, Houston-basedStay-Tru Services developed a highly effective method to minimizefield installation costs and improve reliability of pump baseplates. Its "Stay-Tru Pre-Grouted Base Pla..

Management’s role in achieving and sustaining reliability focus

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

This column has been published for over 13 years and although its content was, and still is, primarily targeting the reliability professional, many of its musings contained messages tha..

HP Reliability: Organizing to be reliability-focused

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

This column has often mentioned the need for industry to abandon its repair focus and to move toward becoming almost exclusively reliability-focused. There are many ways to reach this g..

HP Reliability: Auditing vertical pump mechanical reliability

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

Vertical pumps are important for major process plants. Available in numerous configurations, they excel in such areas as ease of multistaging, virtually unlimited installation depth bel..