Case Study

One of the High Speed Integrally Geared Pump was facing High vibration and Bearing failure issue in a Petrochemical Plant.This leads to seal failure that has environmental as well as production-loss consequences.

Based on the detailed observation made by our team that rust formation on input shaft top bearing was the cause for these failure.Rusting was taking because of the ingress of harsh acidic vapour from the surrounding area through the gearbox breather.

Our team suggested to install silica gel breather instead of normal breather.

MTBF increased from 4 months to 18 months.No environmental consequences Implementation cost : 10K INR (OTC) + 1K /Y (Maintenance cost) Benefit: 600K/Y

All four steam turbines (rated power - 93 MW) were tripping on high vibration during commissioning of a coal based power plant. The turbines were tripping during steady state conditions when the power in each were around ~60 MW. The inability of turbines to reach their rated power goals caused a lot of anxiety in the people’s mind.

Based on detailed vibration analysis of the turbines, it could be ascertained that the high vibrations were because of steam-induced instabilities. Based on our report, the OEM changed the design of the bearings to accommodate much higher steam forces than that conceived during machine design.

Due to early and correct diagnosis of the high vibration, valuable time was saved in project execution and the company was able to swiftly change from gas turbine based power generation to more economical coal based power generation.

One of the cooling water pumps critical for plant operation was experiencing high amps issue due to increased production pressure. It was an HT motor and to cater to load the flow needed to be increased further. The only available option was to upgrade motor which was costly and time consuming task

The issue was resolved by increasing efficiency of the pump. This was done by reducing the leakages through wear rings. To implement this non metallic wear ring were procured and installed.

Efficiency improvement of close to 3% achieved
Power saving of close to 30 Kw was achieved leading to saving of $12000 USD
Total investment : $600 USD

Production obstruction observed due to leakage observed in Preheater/calandria/Vapor separator multiple time. Leaks were from different location in different equipment, like Liquid-vapour separation level in calandria, Tubesheet/tubes failure of pre heater etc.

Based on the detailed observation made by our team that the product is not compatible with equipment material of construction i.e. SS-304 for given process parameter and % Chloride concentration which lead to CSCC failure within few years of equipment installation.
Our team suggested to Graphite/SS-316L-Ti/Hestalloy MEE Tubes instead of SS-304.

• MTBF increased from 6 months to 36-48 months.
• Process established for Management of change during NPI which gives chance to address adequate compatibility test before product introduction
• Benefit: Approximately 500 to 600 KUSD/Y