Hydrocarbon Processing - November 2021 - 16

Reliability
lection of dots or " islands of knowledge. "
The challenge is in connecting the dots,
not collecting them. Dots, by many rational
definitions, are often the equivalent of
out-of-context information, and the last
thing an industrial enterprise needs is anecdotal
or out-of-context information.
FIG. 2. Swelling standard electrical tape
impeded air flow in this motor.
and piping recommendations practiced
by a few best-in-class fluid machinery
user companies. Interns would learn that
customers not ready to authorize certain
feasible upgrades on a particular repair
will be hard pressed not to authorize such
upgrades on one of the repair events that
will likely follow.
As to the interns who receive a balanced
education in both theory and practice,
many of them would opt to pursue
a 2.5-yr program leading to an associate
degree in fluid machinery technology.
All graduates would likely be hired by
fluid machinery user companies that have
plenty of repeat repairs or where upgrades
would capture significantly improved energy
efficiencies.
As to process pumps and their failure
frequencies, industry desperately needs
the kind of talent that feels offended when
pumps made of fewer than 100 components
have more failures per lifecycle than
aircraft jet engines with perhaps 8,000
parts. The moral: Industry needs motivated
value-adders to be productive and
profitable in the years ahead.
Institutions for adult education. In
the decades since 1982, some have become
well acquainted with the adult learning
and industry training departments of
a few universities located along the Texas
and Louisiana Gulf Coasts. Thirty-five
years ago, short courses and lectures filled
an auditorium in Beaumont, Texas. However,
the last such short course (in 2018)
captured a mere eight attendees in Lake
Charles, Louisiana.
The need for solid training has not lessened;
what has interfered, however, is the
erroneous notion that everything we need
to know can be downloaded from the Internet.
Frankly, the Internet is largely a col16
NOVEMBER 2021 | HydrocarbonProcessing.com
Urgent call for motivated SMEs. Considerable
evidence points to a growing
problem: Since around 2000, the petrochemical
industry has lost thousands of
subject matter experts (SMEs) to attrition.
The repercussions are foreseeable,
and an actual example will make the point
without much drama or tactful eloquence.
A very large petrochemical complex in
the U.S. had, for many decades, used oil
mist lubrication on its electric motors to
great advantage. Years later, and with all
the experts presumably gone, a new project
was commissioned, but its many electric
motors were grease-lubricated. Grease
lubrication is labor-intensive, and overgreasing
or over-pressuring will have a demonstrable
negative effect on both bearing
reliability and maintenance budgets.
The motors for the new project were
probably bought from the lowest bidder.
This winning bidder likely underbid
others by not using the required irradiation
cross-linked insulating tape for the
T-leads.
Irradiated cross-linked tape is
needed to ensure low swelling rates. If
adhesive-coated insulating tape (as used
by electricians in field and shop) with its
unavoidably high swell rates were being
used, then the tape would become gummy
and would unravel when hot (FIG. 2).
This would impede the flow of cooling air.
Top motor suppliers recognize their
suppliers
responsibility as
of coaxial
connectors, cable assemblies, and components
used within products that are
targeted for contact with lubricants.
Likewise, reliability-focused user companies
make sound choices. Their SMEs
will steer an organization toward working
with responsible and trustworthy electric
motor makers. The motor specifications
or procurement documents developed
by these SMEs would contain the words
" irradiated cross-linked polymer tape "
and spell out maximum allowable swell
rates in numeric terms.
Manufacturers deserving of the attributes
" responsible " and " trustworthy "
make it their goal to fully understand the
purchaser's priorities. By disclosing the
range of capabilities of their products and
components, the vendor/manufacturer
becomes the purchaser's technology resource.
Alternatively, and preferably, a
reliability-focused user-purchaser will
groom and nurture SMEs whose tasks
include the development of rigorous
motor specifications. These specifications
should ensure that the motors in
their plants incorporate only confirmed
suitable T-lead insulation. Common
sense tells us that reliability engineering
includes hundreds of details akin to the
ones highlighted here.
Although a common product will
suffice in most applications, " standard "
stretchable insulating tape will not serve
well as an oil-resistant cable termination.
Oil resistance can also be an important
consideration in the terminal boxes of
oil mist-lubricated electric motors. Common
electrical
tape swelling near the
stator windings in an electric motor will
likely impede motor cooling effectiveness.
Insufficient heat removal can then
drastically reduce winding life.
It has been reported that the user
company described here has gone back
to grease lubrication on all of its motor
bearings throughout the facility, and that
its pump and motor mean times between
repairs (MTBR) have now fallen well below
the values for which the company received
much acclaim in 1984. We would
recommend that they look for future degreed
fluid machinery engineers or graduates
of a fluid machinery technology
institute which today, admittedly, exists
only in our imagination.
LITERATURE CITED
1
Bloch, H. P., Optimized Equipment Lubrication,
Oil Mist Technology and Standstill Protection,
De Gruyter, Berlin, Germany, 2021.
HEINZ P. BLOCH resides in
Montgomery, Texas. His
professional career commenced
in 1962 and included long-term
assignments as Exxon Chemical's
Regional Machinery Specialist
for the U.S. He has authored or
co-written over 780 publications, among them
24 comprehensive books on practical machinery
management, failure analysis, failure avoidance,
compressors, steam turbines, pumps, oil mist
lubrication and optimized lubrication for industry.
Mr. Bloch holds BS and MS degrees (cum laude)
in mechanical engineering. He is an ASME Life
Fellow and was awarded lifetime registration as
a professional engineer in New Jersey. He is one
of 10 inaugural inductees into Newark College of
Engineering's Hall of Fame, which honors its most
distinguished alumni.
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