The new edition of B31.3 is scheduled to be issued December 2022. As usual, there are many clarifications, updated references to codes and standards, updates to basic allowable stresses and additional listed materials. These types of changes are not described here. There are some substantive changes as well, the most significant of which are: Stress […]
With Ronald van Wolferen For more than half a century, Becht has maintained a valued reputation for exceptional innovation, service and partnership solving engineering problems for the energy, process, and power industries. Today, that reputation extends far beyond engineering! Becht has a full line up of services and resources where all your challenges and goals […]
In a recent blog, August 8, 2022, the subject of an independent check-rate or rating of a cooling tower’s thermal design was discussed. This enables a determination of whether or not the stated or quoted fan horsepower for given design conditions is based on acceptable data and whether or not the resultant horsepower prediction is […]
High-temperature IR Thermography was pioneered several decades ago as a method for understanding tube temperatures inside fired equipment. While the equipment continues to improve, completing accurate analysis of the data remains very challenging. It is a complex process to accurately measure tube wall temperatures due to the variable nature of surface scale, combustion characteristics, and […]
A cooling tower is the largest heat exchanger in a plant, designed to remove heat from a process by a combination of sensible heat transfer and evaporation of water in contact with the surrounding airstream. Mechanically induced draft towers have fans located at the top to draw air through the tower and may be either […]
A common phrase is “What’s measured is managed”. What’s also true is that measuring the wrong things can drive unintended behaviors. We want to be deliberate in choosing the metrics that we track for maintenance. We want to communicate what our objectives are, such as increasing efficiency, schedule attainment or improving repair quality. It is […]
Using a Simple Methodology to Determine the Best Estimate of the True Productivity Performance Can Lead to Further Improvements Abstract For maintenance outages, job plans are created based on certain labor productivity assumptions. While there are a variety of methods for assessing actual productivity during the course of work, there is a simple methodology for […]
While most organizations acknowledge a link between maintenance and reliability, the maintenance and reliability departments are often held within separate organizations at both site and corporate levels. They typically have separate goals and work separately to achieve these goals. One of the key measurements of the maintenance department is the maintenance budget while a key […]
Becht is proud to announce the integration of RPS Training into our Becht catalog of training courses. Bob Campagna and his company, RPS, have a strong reputation for delivering technical, process-focused, training content to the refining industry for close to 37 years. “The industry will continue to have access to the same great technical content […]
The nitrogen, ammonia, hydrogen, urea, and syngas industries are vital to the production of various petrochemical products for worldwide consumption. This industry is dependent on complex process plant and knowledgeable personnel to bring the final product to market. Critical equipment is subject to unique damage mechanisms. Performance of this equipment can be optimized through the […]
