Shaft alignment is likely the most misunderstood facet of rotating installation and maintenance. Most shaft alignment today is done by laser alignment tools. But, the laser alignment tools are a “black box”. The problem with a black box is that you only get outputs with no knowledge of what is going on inside the box. […]
by Greg Hollinger and George Antaki One of the qualification requirements for a piping system is to keep the loads imparted by the piping on equipment nozzles within certain allowable limits. These loads consist of sets of three forces and three moments, for the various load combinations. There are basically two types of nozzle load limits: […]
Note: This blog is a continuation from the previous article from Becht Engineering, “Shaft Fatigue Failures – Part I”. It is suggested that the reader review “Shaft Fatigue Failures – Part I” before proceeding with this article. Click Here to view Part I. Before getting into the calculation methods, first a quick refresher on high […]
Many years ago when I first started my career in a rotating equipment maintenance organization, I was spending the day with a senior metallurgist, which was part of my orientation process as a new technical employee. He was well known to not have the best “bedside manner” and it was clear he was not thrilled […]
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 […]
