Operator's Guide to Rotating Equipment


Book Description

Every operator who is responsible for monitoring critical rotating equipment will greatly benefit from this handy reference book. The goal of this book is to present proven techniques that will enable rookie and veteran operators alike to detect problems early and, we hope, eliminate major outages and/or maintenance costs. To achieve this goal we shall explain the basics of lubrication systems, bearings, drivers, seals and sealing systems, for centrifugal and positive displacement pumps as well as turbines, centrifugal compressors and reciprocating compressors. We will then present common sense inspection methods for centrifugal and positive displacement pumps, gear boxes, motors, heat exchangers, and turbines.




Operator’S Guide to Centrifugal Pumps, Volume 2


Book Description

Many readers have found Operator's Guide to Centrifugal Pumps (Xlibris, 2008) to be a valuable training resource for process operators. Volume 2 provides additional training material in the form of student challenge exams and additional exposure to reliability topics. Volume 2 has two goals: The first goal is to continue to build on the general theme of pump reliability in process facilitates. The second goal is to provide student challenge exams for those wanting to master the material in Operator's Guide to Centrifugal Pumps. The first chapter covers how process operators can be better utilized to improve pump reliability. The importance of operating training and commissioning will be covered in the next two chapters. In the final chapter, a methodology for addressing troublesome centrifugal pumps is presented. A majority of the book is comprised of three (3) different student challenge exams are included in Volume 2. Answers to all the exam questions are provided along with where the answers can be found in the Operator's Guide. There are a total of 150 challenge questions with their answers.




Operator's Guide to Rotating Equipment


Book Description

Every operator who is responsible for monitoring critical rotating equipment will greatly benefit from this handy reference book. The goal of this book is to present proven techniques that will enable rookie and veteran operators alike to detect problems early and, we hope, eliminate major outages and/or maintenance costs. To achieve this goal we shall explain the basics of lubrication systems, bearings, drivers, seals and sealing systems, for centrifugal and positive displacement pumps as well as turbines, centrifugal compressors and reciprocating compressors. We will then present common sense inspection methods for centrifugal and positive displacement pumps, gear boxes, motors, heat exchangers, and turbines.




Operator's Guide to General Purpose Steam Turbines


Book Description

When installed and operated properly, general purpose steam turbines are reliable and tend to be forgotten, i.e., out of sound and out of mind. But, they can be sleeping giants that can result in major headaches if ignored. Three real steam turbine undesirable consequences that immediately come to mind are: Injury and secondary damage due to an overspeed failure. An overspeed failure on a big steam or gas turbine is one of the most frightening of industrial accidents. The high cost of an extensive overhaul due to an undetected component failure. A major steam turbine repair can cost ten or more times that of a garden variety centrifugal pump repair. Costly production loses due an extended outage if the driven pump or compressor train is unspared. The value of lost production can quickly exceed repair costs. A major goal of this book is to provide readers with detailed operating procedure aimed at reducing these risks to minimal levels. Start-ups are complicated by the fact that operators must deal with numerous start-up scenarios, such as: Commissioning a newly installed steam turbine Starting ups after a major steam turbine repair Starting up a proven steam turbine after an outage Overspeed trip testing It is not enough to simply have a set of procedures in the control room for reference. To be effective, operating procedures must be clearly written down, taught, and practiced—until they become habit.




Maintenance, Reliability and Troubleshooting in Rotating Machinery


Book Description

Maintenance, Reliability and Troubleshooting in ROTATING MACHINERY This broad collection of current rotating machinery topics, written by industry experts, is a must-have for rotating equipment engineers, maintenance personnel, students, and anyone else wanting to stay abreast with current rotating machinery concepts and technology. Rotating machinery represents a broad category of equipment, which includes pumps, compressors, fans, gas turbines, electric motors, internal combustion engines, and other equipment, that are critical to the efficient operation of process facilities around the world. These machines must be designed to move gases and liquids safely, reliably, and in an environmentally friendly manner. To fully understand rotating machinery, owners must be familiar with their associated technologies, such as machine design, lubrication, fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, rotordynamics, vibration analysis, condition monitoring, maintenance practices, reliability theory, and other topics. The goal of the “Advances in Rotating Machinery” book series is to provide industry practitioners a time-savings means of learning about the most up-to-date rotating machinery ideas and best practices. This three-book series will cover industry-relevant topics, such as design assessments, modeling, reliability improvements, maintenance methods and best practices, reliability audits, data collection, data analysis, condition monitoring, and more. Volume one began the series by focusing on design and analysis. Volume two continues the series by covering important machinery reliability concepts and offering practical reliability improvement ideas. Best-in-class production facilities require exceptional machinery reliability performance. In this volume, exceptional machinery reliability is defined as the ability of critical rotating machines to consistently perform as designed, without degradation or failure, until their next scheduled overhaul. Readers will find this volume chock-full of practical ideas they can use to improve the reliability and efficiency of their machinery. Maintenance, Reliability and Troubleshooting in Rotating Machinery covers, among many other topics: General machinery reliablity advice Understanding failure data Design audits and improvement ideas Maintenace best practices Analyzing failures




Understanding Process Equipment for Operators and Engineers


Book Description

Understanding Process Equipment for Operators and Engineers explains how process equipment functions. As problems often arise in plants that must be solved by unit engineers, this book offers successful solutions and methods for their implementation. The concepts explained are based on Norm Lieberman's personal, hands-on experience. Like you, Norm attended a university and was exposed to technical seminars which did not always provide the needed solutions. In this text, you will learn the functioning of a variety of equipment types, including Fired Heater Draft, Centrifugal Pump Head, Distillation Tray Efficiency, Vacuum Jets, Recip Compressors, Steam Turbines, Thermosyphon Circulation Reboilers and Air Cooler. - Includes methods and procedures on how to make field measurements - Outlines fire heater principles and operation and how they develop draft - Describes distillation column operation and methods to increase their efficiency - Includes computer modeling and provides use case examples




Operator’S Guide to Centrifugal Pumps


Book Description

We work in an industry where economic success is heavily dependent on the collective performance of our processing equipment and their operators. Without highly trained and confident operators we can never hope to realize the full potential of our complex processes. Formal and informal training must be provided regularly if continuous process and reliability gains are to be expected. There are no shortcuts to operational excellence. One training topic essential to every operators education is that of centrifugal pumping technology. The ever-present centrifugal pump is one of the workhorses of the process world, tirelessly moving fluids, ranging from the innocuous to the toxic and flammable, from one stage of the process to the next. We would be hard pressed to find a processing unit inside our complexes without a few of these in service. Their shear numbers and variety can make their mastery a challenge. This book was specifically written for process operators who regularly deal with centrifugal pumps, addressing principally those variables and factors under their control, while limiting design theory and mathematics to a minimum. The following topics and content are covered: 1. Importance of equipment reliability and what role operators play in this mission. 2. Centrifugal pump operating characteristics 3. Mechanical seals and their related seal flush plans 4. What operators should know about electric motors 5. Lubrication basics 6. Troubleshooting basics 7. How to start a pump reliability program By the end of the book, the reader should possess a clear understanding of how to operate and monitor their pumps. Three handy references are also contained in the book to answer questions as they arise in the field: 1) Operators Guide to API Flush Plans, 2) Illustrated Glossary of Centrifugal Pump Terms, 3) Glossary of Electric Motor Terms, and 4) Useful Centrifugal Pump Formulas. This book can be used as a self-paced, self-taught short course or as a companion to a live prepared short course for both inexperienced and seasoned operators. It can also serve as a handy field guide after completion of the course. The ultimate mission of this book is to provide the latest generation of operators a body of knowledge that is relevant, complete, and practical in an industrial setting for years to come.




Troubleshooting Rotating Machinery


Book Description

Process machines are critical to the profitability of processes. Safe, efficient and reliable machines are required to maintain dependable manufacturing processes that can create saleable, on-spec product on time, and at the desired production rate. As the wards of process machinery, we wish to keep our equipment in serviceable condition. One of the most challenging aspects of a machinery professional or operator’s job is deciding whether an operating machine should be shut down due to a perceived problem or be allowed to keep operating. If he or she wrongly recommends a repair be conducted, the remaining useful machine life is wasted, but if he or she is right, they can save the organization from severe consequences, such as product releases, fires, costly secondary machine damage, etc. This economic balancing act is at the heart of all machinery assessments. Troubleshooting is part science and part art. Simple troubleshooting tables or decision trees are rarely effective in solving complex, real-world machine problems. For this reason, the authors want to offer a novel way to attack machinery issues that can adversely affect the reliability and efficiency of your plant processes. The methodology presented in this book is not a rigid “cook book” approach but rather a flexible and dynamic process aimed at exploring process plant machines holistically, in order uncover the true nature the problem at hand.







Operator's Guide to General Purpose Steam Turbines


Book Description

When installed and operated properly, general purpose steam turbines are reliable and tend to be forgotten, i.e., out of sound and out of mind. But, they can be sleeping giants that can result in major headaches if ignored. Three real steam turbine undesirable consequences that immediately come to mind are: Injury and secondary damage due to an overspeed failure. An overspeed failure on a big steam or gas turbine is one of the most frightening of industrial accidents. The high cost of an extensive overhaul due to an undetected component failure. A major steam turbine repair can cost ten or more times that of a garden variety centrifugal pump repair. Costly production loses due an extended outage if the driven pump or compressor train is unspared. The value of lost production can quickly exceed repair costs. A major goal of this book is to provide readers with detailed operating procedure aimed at reducing these risks to minimal levels. Start-ups are complicated by the fact that operators must deal with numerous start-up scenarios, such as: Commissioning a newly installed steam turbine Starting ups after a major steam turbine repair Starting up a proven steam turbine after an outage Overspeed trip testing It is not enough to simply have a set of procedures in the control room for reference. To be effective, operating procedures must be clearly written down, taught, and practiced—until they become habit.