Preventive Maintenance

A simple fault-finding technique. Fixing plant and equipment about which you know little is daunting. Here is a simple way to help you successfully find faulty or failed equipment.

We like to be warned about things well ahead of time: when to buy or sell a stock, when we can expect 3 to 6 inches of snow, etc. The same could be said about the equipment and systems that drive your processes every day. These critical and expensive assets are expected to produce the valuable products your company is known for with little or no interruption. We might have a reasonably clear picture of how things look today, but what about 30 days from now? Wouldn’t it be beneficial to have a picture of what our systems might look like that far into the future… and have confidence in that view?

Many impurities may transport to boilers via contaminated condensate return. Boiler tube and steam system failures are usually much more costly than preventive installation of treatment equipment and chemistry programs. This article touched upon only some of the important condensate return issues, but will hopefully galvanize readers to focus on these critical topics. 

Makeup water and condensate return treatment systems are often neglected until boiler failures occur, resulting in a reactive response by plant management. Such failures can cripple production and be enormously expensive. Much more importantly, some failures may jeopardize employee safety. This article examines the importance of proper operation and preventive maintenance of industrial makeup water treatment systems and the benefits that arise therefrom.