LIFETIME RELIABILITY SOLUTIONS

Industrial Plant
Maintenance and
Plant Engineering
Handbook
For Industrial Plant Maintenance
Managers, Plant Maintenance Engineers
and Maintenance Technicians
Mike Sondalini

www.lifetime-reliability.com

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Industrial Plant Maintenance and Plant

Engineering Handbook
Disclaimer: Because the authors, publisher and resellers do not know the context in
which the information presented in this book is to be used, they accept no responsibility
for the consequences of using the information contained or implied in it.

CONTENTS
Bulk Materials ............................................................................................................................... 7
Open Trickle Chutes For Wet And Sticky Products ................................................................... 8
Tracking Large Rotating Equipment ......................................................................................... 10
Rotating Tyre And Trunnion Wear ........................................................................................... 13
Bridging In Silos And Hoppers ................................................................................................. 15
Experiences with Bucket Elevators ........................................................................................... 18
Changing Out Dust Bags In Reverse Pulse Dust Collectors ..................................................... 21
Pulse Jet Bag House Dust Collectors ........................................................................................ 22
Reducing Wear In Abrasive Conditions.................................................................................... 25
Cyclone Separators An Overview .......................................................................................... 28
Dust Control Concepts .............................................................................................................. 31
Belt Conveyor Tuning. .............................................................................................................. 34
Dust Bag Selection For Bag-Houses. ........................................................................................ 37
Tracking Belts On Bucket Elevators And Conveyors. .............................................................. 40
Belt Bucket Elevator Selection, Installation and Operation Guide ........................................... 43
Screw Conveyor and Auger Selection, Installation and Operation Guide ................................ 51
Plant Engineering ........................................................................................................................ 57
Protecting Bearings From Dust And Water. ............................................................................. 58
Flange Bolting-Up Practices ..................................................................................................... 61
Chemical Corrosion Control ..................................................................................................... 66
Bitumen Roadway Repairs ........................................................................................................ 69
Grease Use The Right One For The Job. ............................................................................... 71
Vibration and Out of Balance Equipment ................................................................................. 74
Unfired pressure vessel inspections .......................................................................................... 77
Glued And Applied Coatings .................................................................................................... 80
Vibration and its Control ........................................................................................................... 83
Corrosion In Agitated Conditions ............................................................................................. 86
Use Of Iso-corrosion Curve Diagrams To Recognise High Corrosion Situations .................... 89
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Keep Gearboxes Running.......................................................................................................... 92

The Connection Between Nut Torque And Bolt Tension. ........................................................ 94
Preheating Welds....................................................................................................................... 96
Isolation Valves For Different Services .................................................................................... 99
Polyethylene Its Properties And Uses .................................................................................. 102
Heat Welding Of Plastics ........................................................................................................ 105
Heating Liquids By Steam Sparging ....................................................................................... 111
Separation & Segregation Of Dangerous Goods ..................................................................... 114
Angular Contact Bearing Use ................................................................................................. 117
Shaft Coupling Selection Issues .............................................................................................. 119
Stress In Metals Cause Failure ................................................................................................ 120
Locating Pressure Relief Valves ............................................................................................. 123
Equipment And Plant Layout For Improved Maintenance ..................................................... 125
Spherical Roller Bearings........................................................................................................ 127
Bronze Use The Right One In The Right Place. .................................................................. 129
Converting From Oiled To Greased Shaft Roller Bearings .................................................... 132
Electric Motor Problems ......................................................................................................... 134
Metal Corrosion Basics ........................................................................................................... 137
Vee-Belt Drives ....................................................................................................................... 144
Vertical Bulk Liquid Storage Tank Construction and Maintenance. ...................................... 147
Metal Fatigue Failure .............................................................................................................. 150
Chain Drives Some Experiences In-The-Field..................................................................... 154
Cooling Water Towers ............................................................................................................ 156
Static Electricity Basics. .......................................................................................................... 159
O-Ring Design, Operation and Use......................................................................................... 160
What is Life Cycle Costing? ................................................................................................... 162
Steam Trap Operation And Selection...................................................................................... 163
Hazardous Areas For Dusts And Flammables ........................................................................ 166
Sealing Threaded Pipe Connections ........................................................................................ 171
Air Compressor Operation And Care ...................................................................................... 174
Heat Exchanger Design And Use ............................................................................................ 176
Oil How Clean Does It Have To Be? ................................................................................... 180
Spread Forces Throughout Equipment and Reduce Breakdowns ........................................... 184
Set-up Tank Agitator Gearboxes for Long Life at Low Cost ................................................. 187
Gluing Plastic Pipes so You Can Trust Them. ........................................................................ 190
Non-Destructive Testing Of Welds ......................................................................................... 192
Rolling Bearing Vibration Detection ...................................................................................... 195
Rotating Shafts Under Bending Stress .................................................................................... 197
The Big Bang Starting And Stopping Equipment Under Load ............................................ 200
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6 Secrets of Trouble-free Lubrication Success ....................................................................... 203

Heat Transfer Basics ............................................................................................................... 205
Fired Packaged Boiler Basics .................................................................................................. 209
Lubrication Cleanliness and Filtration .................................................................................... 212
Membrane And Leaf Filtration Overview ............................................................................... 214
Air Mover and Air Amplifier Problems .................................................................................. 217
Acid Sparge And Acid Sparging ............................................................................................. 219
Cheap Way To High Pumping Circuit Availability ................................................................ 221
The Galvanic Corrosion Trap .................................................................................................. 223
Plant Maintenance..................................................................................................................... 226
Present A Winning Financially Justification For New And Replacement Equipment ........... 227
The Cost of Maintenance Destroys Your Capital Investment Returns ................................... 232
Some Quality Paradigms are Expensive ................................................................................. 234
A Simple Fault Finding Technique ......................................................................................... 235
Recommended Approach To Fault Finding ............................................................................ 236
Fault Finding Practice ............................................................................................................. 236
The Continuous Improvement Method of Thomas Edison ..................................................... 237
Benchmarking using Replacement Asset Value ..................................................................... 239
Importance Of Fit, Tolerance And Clearance ......................................................................... 242
Can Your Spare Parts Be Made Locally? ................................................................................ 245
Failure Analysis Of A Gearbox, Fan, Bearing and Shaft ........................................................ 247
Maintenance Planning Make Your Planner Successful! ...................................................... 249
What makes a World-Class Asset Management Organisation? .............................................. 251
Job Types On Work Orders ..................................................................................................... 253
Job Performance Reviews ....................................................................................................... 254
Maintenance Planning and Scheduling ................................................................................... 255
Valuable Secrets In Every Work Order Report. ...................................................................... 256
Agitator Shaft Thrust Bearings ............................................................................................... 257
Job Descriptions Tell Tradesmen What To Do ....................................................................... 259
Equipment Identification Tags Save Time .............................................................................. 260
Confined Space Entry Safety .................................................................................................. 261
Preventative Maintenance Stops Breakdowns ........................................................................ 264
Fibreglass Construction and Repair ........................................................................................ 265
Use Written Work Instructions to Make it Clear .................................................................... 268
Use Words Instead Of Code Numbers On Work Orders ........................................................ 269
Watch Keeping - Added Value From Operators ..................................................................... 270
Components of an Effective Maintenance System ................................................................. 271
Have Good Valve Decontamination Practices ........................................................................ 272
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Predictive Maintenance What Is It? ..................................................................................... 273

How Accounting Policies Affect Maintenance Costs ............................................................. 274
Safety Shower Installations ..................................................................................................... 275
Job Safety on Hazardous and Dangerous Work ...................................................................... 277
Tools to Focus on Plant Reliability ......................................................................................... 278
Reliability Centered Maintenance - What Is It? ...................................................................... 280
Creative Disassembly .............................................................................................................. 283
Holiday Detection in Above-ground Tank Bottom Lining Inspection ................................... 286
Root Cause Analysis Answers Your Problems ....................................................................... 288
Is Your Wet Scrubbing Tower Working? ............................................................................... 290
Plant Compressed Air Waste Control ..................................................................................... 293
Work Within The Design Limits ............................................................................................. 295
5 Whys Method of Root Cause Analysis ................................................................................ 296
The 5 S Method of Operation ............................................................................................... 299
Equipment Criticality .............................................................................................................. 301
The 9 Great Benefits Of A CMMS* ....................................................................................... 303
Budgets What To Do And How To Use Them .................................................................... 306
When To Use Stainless And Alloy Steel In Place Of Plastic Or Carbon Steel....................... 309
Process Control and Process Instrumentation ....................................................................... 311
Ultrasonic Level Detector: Consider These Experiences ........................................................ 312
How Control Valves Work ...................................................................................................... 315
Radar Level Detectors ............................................................................................................. 318
Differential Pressure Transmitters .......................................................................................... 319
Magnetic Flow Meters ............................................................................................................ 321
How Control Systems Can Trick Operators ............................................................................ 323
Experiences With Pneumatic Actuators .................................................................................. 324
Capacitance Level Probes ....................................................................................................... 326
Temperature Sensing Elements ............................................................................................... 327
Plastic Air Pipelines For Instruments And Control Valves..................................................... 328
Proximity Switches ................................................................................................................. 329
Using pH Meters ..................................................................................................................... 331
Process Logic Controller (PLC) Basics .................................................................................. 334
Using Manometers For Measuring Pressure ........................................................................... 336
Electric Motor Current Protection Saves Your Plant .............................................................. 338
Electric Motor Reliability........................................................................................................ 341
Control Loops Masters Of Automatic Control ..................................................................... 343
Flow Meters Dont Believe Them ........................................................................................ 345
Electric Motor Variable Speed Drives Operation ................................................................... 347
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Orifice Plate Meter Flow Measurement .................................................................................. 349

Effect Of Process Changes On Electric Motors ...................................................................... 351
Conductivity Meter Operation and Use .................................................................................. 355
Mechanical Level Sensor Types And Use .............................................................................. 357
Pumps and Pumping ................................................................................................................. 359
Changing The Service Duty Of A Pump ................................................................................. 360
Shaft Sealing With A Packed Gland ....................................................................................... 363
Get Mechanical Seals Working Properly ................................................................................ 365
Dont Run Centrifugal Pumps On The End Of The Curve ..................................................... 368
Net Positive Suction Head Losses ........................................................................................... 371
Experiences With Magnetic Drive (Magdrive) Pumps ........................................................... 374
Magnetic Drive Pumps Selection and Operation Guide ......................................................... 376
Sizing Liquid Flow Pipelines Easily ....................................................................................... 379
Shaft Alignment On Pumps..................................................................................................... 382
Centrifugal Pump Cavitation ................................................................................................... 384
How Fluids Flow In Pipes ....................................................................................................... 387
Problems With Peristaltic (Hose) Pumps ................................................................................ 390
Water Hammer And How It Is Controlled .............................................................................. 392
Helical Rotor Pumps Benefits And Limitations ................................................................... 394
Centrifugal Pump Life Extension The Volute...................................................................... 396
Gear Pump Operation & Maintenance .................................................................................... 398
Metering and Dosing Pump Operation.................................................................................... 401
Moving Slurries About ............................................................................................................ 404
Pumping Abrasives With Progressive Cavity Helical Screw Pump ....................................... 406
Pump Life Extension The Impeller ...................................................................................... 409

Plus Three Free Bonus Guides

Centrifugal Pump Selection, Installation and Operation Guide
15 Pages
Sump Pumps, Submersibles and Bilge Pump Selection and
Installation Guide 28 Pages
Helical Rotor Pump Selection, Installation and Operation Guide
21 Pages

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