Traditional rotating equipment mounted at grade use the mass of a foundation and grout to reduce vibration and provide support and stiffness. However, cooling tower fans must be elevated many feet above a basin of water which sometimes puts them “out of sight and out of mind”. Cost and practicality prohibits concrete and grout, thus […]
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 […]
Compressor cylinder bore misalignment can cause failures that are often not attributed to misalignment. Crosshead shoes uneven wear, compressor piston rod failure at both the crosshead and at the piston, compressor piston rod coating failure, piston wear and compressor cylinder bore wear can all be attributed to cylinder misalignment. The objective of this article is […]
Today it is common practice in overhauls of large rotating equipment to spend many man hours in detailed planning, coordination, writing procedures, reviewing documentation, reviewing past photos, procuring and inspecting spare parts etc. We also review our past experience and put steps in place to mitigate past problems or errors. Now that we have a […]
Oil system cleaning or Oil Flush has humbled many Machinery Guys. What seems like a very simple task often turns out to be to the Achilles’ heel and often unpredicted and embarrassing critical path of the machinery overhaul. The purpose of this article is to outline improvements that we have implemented to the old-fashion “Flush […]
Serious floods rarely occur in the life of a refinery or petro-chemical plant. But when such an event does occur there are significant implications for the reliability of rotating equipment and associated business risks when it’s time to restart the plant. And because this scenario is so uncommon, there are few, if any, industry standards […]
This is the second article in a planned series where questions related to process machinery will be addressed. The intent of these articles is to answer general questions you may have about the machinery that you work with or manage on a daily basis. In each article we will address different systems associated with the […]
A new process unit was designed and built by a petrochemical manufacturer. As part of the project, two 50 horespower blowers were installed. Rotating equipment of this type is traditionally installed at grade on an engineered monolithic concrete foundation with rebar and anchor bolts. A suitable soleplate or baseplate is then grouted to the foundation […]
The Becht Guys were recently involved with removing an existing large WPII (weather protected, internal air-cooled) electric motor and installing a new spare motor on a planned outage. This work was being performed in a petrochemical plant where we spent most of our careers. Many years ago we had developed a program to extend the […]
Summary At a gulf coast site, a large catalyst drier began experiencing vibrations after start up and suffered a failure. The drier internal diameter is approximately 7 feet, measures 40 feet long and is supported at each end by 2 large trunion shafts on which are mounted 2 rollers. There is a large ring gear […]
