Hot bolting is a specialized technique that requires an evaluation of the area in question both before and after the actual procedure. It is a skilled discipline that requires expert technicians to carry out the entire process.
Category: Manufacturing
What You Need to Know About Dry Gas Seals
Dry gas seals are now being used in more areas and industries than ever before. This is due to their flexibility and the way in which they are capable of operating under immense duress, without failing too often. Indeed, they can be found in a range of pumps, compressors, and other engineering projects, so it does make sense for us to explore them a bit further in order to provide a better explanation as to the link between them and a range of flowmeters.
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Improving Safety And Productivity With Efficient Technology
It is often considered that safety and productivity are contradictory factors within a business model. Although both aspects of a company’s operation need to be treated with equal importance, it often seems that a balance needs to be struck to find optimum levels of both. With recent advancements in technology, this has been turned upside down, as new techniques have been providing companies with answers that offer both improved safety and productivity simultaneously, particularly in the gas and oil industries.
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A Look Into the Petrochemical Industry
Many industries, the petrochemical industry in particular, are in the business of processing oil or gas for all or part of the manufacturing process. Once the oil has gone through the refining process, it is placed in intermediate tanks and made into marketable products, such as gasoline and other petrochemicals.
Oil has been used for lighting and fuel for thousands of years and, while there are modern energy solutions available, it is still an integral part of manufacturing. When it comes to the manufacturing industry, oil and gas are an essential part of the petrochemical industry as demand rises for more cost effective synthetic materials.
Oil and Gas Processing: How Gas Flow Measurement Affects Production
While you might not give much thought to how oil and gas reaches your local fueling station unless prices begin to rise, the steps involved may surprise you. From drilling for crude oil to refining it for a number of uses, including the gasoline you pump into your vehicle’s fuel tank, much goes into this process. There are also a number of important factors involved in oil and gas processing; however, from the search for fossil fuel sources to the refinement of such products to measuring consistent flow rates at oil refineries and other fuel facilities, gas flow measurement is a key component of the manufacturing process.
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New Fuel Additives from Sugar
Mineral oil has been the chief raw material for fuel additives like isooctane, but new processes will produce gasoline additives from biological sources. For the first time additives to reduce premature ignition in engines will be produce from purely renewable resources.
These biobased additives will use a biobased isobutene as a starting material in a new process, sourced originally from sugar. Usually isooctane is produced from isobutene, but because the starting resource is biobased the new process will account for small differences in the properties of both chemicals. The production teams are intimately aware of the challenge of contamination from the raw materials and will approach the entire process with overall cost effectiveness in mind.
Click here for the full article by Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.
Capturing Phase Transitions at Atomic Level
Engineers from the University of Pittsburgh have used a Dynamic Transmission Electron Microscope to view the phase changes in aluminum alloys. The scale at which the observations are made can pin-point atoms as the materials go from solid to liquid and liquid to gas under different environmental situations. Data garnered by the engineering team will help better model the properties of these alloys for manufacturers and engineered material designers.
Prior to the advent of the DTEM, we could only simulate these transformations on a computer. We hope to discover the mechanisms of how alloy microstructures evolve during solidification after laser melting by direct and locally resolved observation.
Click here for the full article by Leah Scully.
What is Good Control Design?
A good design to a control room will facilitate efficiency and minimize liability. The design will enhance an operator’s efforts to produce the desired results in production. Since 2000 the International Organization for Standardization has produced a set of standards, ISO 11064, for control room design. Most of these standards deal with ergonomics and layout for the room, and adherence to these standards can greatly protect a company from injury lawsuits.
ISO 11064 helps establish good design standards with measurable results to avoid control rooms like many of us have experienced. Designed control rooms, control buildings and operation camps that feature a user-driven approach, work with ISO 11064 requirements, and integrate architectural, interior design and human-factors elements optimize performance.
First and foremost in the design process focuses on safety; locating the control room outside of blast zones, pathways of heavy equipment, and insecure environments. Further efforts deal with employee access and localities.
Click here for the full article by Mary Ann Lane.
Manufacturing Environs Require Rugged Components
Technology has advanced beyond physical buttons, switches, and indicator lamps, but these components are still widely used in manufacturing and processing facilities. Even though main control interfaces could be graphic interfaces with touch panels, the physical abuse it receives may easily overwhelm the hardiness of the device. In situations where heavy machinery is utilized or bulky safety gear is worn, a large start-stop button and flashing red light are more effective for operators.
There are standard ratings for the degree of protection, or ruggedness, of equipment components; NEMA or IEC (IP) ratings. Both rate how much physical and environmental abuse a component can withstand, but differ among each other over the exact scaling of the ratings. Something as trivial as a button may be rated quite highly on either scale simply for being designed with repeated pressing in mind, “A case in point is the repeated pressing of a door close button on an elevator when someone is in a hurry.”
Stack lights and indicators are used to give an operator a quick snapshot of the state of a machine. Green lights most often signal everything is in order; red typically indicates some type of problem. NFPA 79 lists some recommended colors for different situations.
Click here for the full article on Control Design.
Gas Engines for Processing
For versatility and power, nothing beats the gas-fueled internal combustion engine. It can output enough power for those demanding tasks, be reliable for long hours and years of service, or mobile for sporadic fringe uses. Over the years gas engines have been improved through copious research and careful adaptations in compression ratings and fuel economics.
Many processing facilities utilize gas engines in medium- to large-scale mechanical drivers. These engines can power compressors, pumps, generators, and other equipment. As engine technology improves to provide more power with less fuel usage, processing plants utilize smaller engines and more processing room. Large engines are usually operated at under 1,000 rpm to preserve life while generating enough power to operate the machinery. Running at lower speeds requires significantly larger engines, reducing plant floor space, while faster speeds increase wear and tear damage to the engines.
Click here for the full article by Amin Almasi.