Equipment Knowledge

Equipment Knowledge

Should Jack Screws be tight or backed off?

There has always been a debate on whether jack screws should remain tight against the side of the machine case after the machine has been moved into position or to back off the screws, so they do not touch. Should jack screws be tight or backed off? The answer is yes and no. In some situations you should leave the bolts tight against the machine and in other situations, it may be better to back off the jack screws.

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Equipment Knowledge

6 Easy Steps to Maintain Your Hydraulic Equipment

“What’s the system’s normal operating temperature? What’s the system’s usual operating pressure range?” If you can’t answer these two basic questions about the vital signs of your hydraulic equipment I strongly recommend you make the effort to get to know your hydraulic equipment better. The information is easy to collect and can give valuable insight to the health of your hydraulic equipment.

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Equipment Knowledge

Tips For Blower Maintenance

The article is intended to provide a few tips for blower maintenance to plant maintenance professionals in reducing the downtime and increasing the reliability of blowers. Generally the apparent reasons for blower failure are: Failure of Bearings and High Vibrations

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Engineering

Understanding Shaft Alignment: Thermal Growth

Machine conditions change from the time the machine is off line to when it is running under normal operating conditions. Some of these changes are due to process forces (e.g., fluid pressures, airflow, etc.). The most notable of these changes is the change in the temperature of the machine bearings and supports. This is called the machine’s thermal growth.

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Equipment Knowledge

Anatomy of a Boiler Failure—A Different Perspective

The power industry’s operating and maintenance practices were held up to intense regulator and public scrutiny when on November 6, 2007, a Massachusetts power plant’s steam-generating boiler exploded and three men died. The Department of Public Safety’s Incident Report investigation determined that the primary cause of the Dominion Energy New England’s Salem Harbor Generating Station Unit 3 explosion was extensive corrosion of boiler tubes

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Engineering

The Cost of Producing Electricity

The cost per kWhr, the “cost of producing electricity”, is the cost of the energy which is taken out of the steam by the turbine generator system and converted into electricity. The following paper discusses calculation methods for determining this cost — a critical step in the process of evaluating cogeneration feasibility.

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Equipment Knowledge

Classifying Chemicals to Assure Effective Sealing

The most common question asked by seal salesmen is “what are you sealing?” This is usually followed by asking about shaft size, product, temperature, speed, stuffing box pressure and any other operating conditions they can think of. The problem with this simplistic approach is that you would have to have a very large data bank of information to reference a particular problem so as to be able to make a sensible seal recommendation. There is a much more logical approach to the problem that we will be discussing in the following paragraphs.

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