Pump Wisdom Explore key facets of centrifugal pump ownership, installation, operation, and troubleshooting The Second Edition of Pump Wisdom: Essential Centrifugal Pump Knowledge for Operators and Specialists delivers a concise explanation of how pumps function, the design specifications that must be considered before purchasing a pump, and current best practices in lubrication and mechanical seals. Readers will encounter new startup and surveillance tips for pump operators, as well as repair versus replacement or upgrade considerations for maintenance decision makers, new condition monitoring guidance for centrifugal pumps, and expanded coverage of operator best practices. This latest edition of Pump Wisdom: Essential Centrifugal Pump Knowledge for Operators and Specialists includes expanded coverage of areas critical to achieving best-in-class pump reliability, including commonly encountered issues and easy-to-follow instructions for getting centrifugal pumps to operate safely and reliably. This book also provides: Comprehensible and accessible explanations of pump hydraulics Simple explorations of the mechanical aspects of pumps with coverage of bearings, seals, impeller trimming, lubricant application, and more Safety tips and instructions for centrifugal pumps Perfect for chemical, petroleum, and mechanical engineers, Pump Wisdom: Essential Centrifugal Pump Knowledge for Operators and Specialists is also an ideal resource for operators, managers, purchasing agents, machinists, reliability technicians, and maintenance workers in water and wastewater plants.

Process machines are critical to the profitability of processes. Safe, efficient and reliable machines are required to maintain dependable manufacturing processes that can create saleable, on-spec product on time, and at the desired production rate. As the wards of process machinery, we wish to keep our equipment in serviceable condition. One of the most challenging aspects of a machinery professional or operator's job is deciding whether an operating machine should be shut down due to a perceived problem or be allowed to keep operating. If he or she wrongly recommends a repair be conducted, the remaining useful machine life is wasted, but if he or she is right, they can save the organization from severe consequences, such as product releases, fires, costly secondary machine damage, etc. This economic balancing act is at the heart of all machinery assessments. Troubleshooting is part science and part art. Simple troubleshooting tables or decision trees are rarely effective in solving complex, real-world machine problems. For this reason, the authors want to offer a novel way to attack machinery issues that can adversely affect the reliability and efficiency of your plant processes. The methodology presented in this book is not a rigid "cook book" approach but rather a flexible and dynamic process aimed at exploring process plant machines holistically, in order uncover the true nature the problem at hand.

When installed and operated properly, general purpose steam turbines are reliable and tend to be forgotten, i.e., out of sound and out of mind. But, they can be sleeping giants that can result in major headaches if ignored. Three real steam turbine undesirable consequences that immediately come to mind are: * Injury and secondary damage due to an overspeed failure. An overspeed failure on a big steam or gas turbine is one of the most frightening of industrial accidents. * The high cost of an extensive overhaul due to an undetected component failure. A major steam turbine repair can cost ten or more times that of a garden variety centrifugal pump repair. * Costly production loses due an extended outage if the driven pump or compressor train is unspared. The value of lost production can quickly exceed repair costs. A major goal of this book is to provide readers with detailed operating procedure aimed at reducing these risks to minimal levels. Start-ups are complicated by the fact that operators must deal with numerous start-up scenarios, such as: * Commissioning a newly installed steam turbine * Starting ups after a major steam turbine repair * Starting up a proven steam turbine after an outage * Overspeed trip testing It is not enough to simply have a set of procedures in the control room for reference. To be effective, operating procedures must be clearly written down, taught, and practiced until they become habit.

The perfect primer for anyone responsible for operating or maintaining process gas compressors. Gas compressors tend to be the largest, most costly, and most critical machines employed in chemical and gas transfer processes. Since they tend to have the greatest effect on the reliability of processes they power, compressors typically receive the most scrutiny of all the machinery among the general population of processing equipment. To prevent unwanted compressor failures from occurring, operators must be taught how their equipment should operate and how each installation is different from one another. The ultimate purpose of this book is to teach those who work in process settings more about gas compressors, so they can start up and operate them correctly and monitor their condition with more confidence. Some may regard compressor technology as too broad and complex a topic for operating personnel to fully understand, but the author has distilled this vast body of knowledge into some key, easy to understand lessons for the reader to study at his or her own pace. This groundbreaking new work is a must-have for any engineer, operator, or manager working with process compressors. The main goals of this book are to: Explain important theories and concepts about gases and compression processes with a minimum of mathematics Identify key compressor components and explain how they affect reliability Explain how centrifugal compressors, reciprocating compressors, and screw compressors function. Explain key operating factors that affect reliabilityIntroduce the reader to basic troubleshooting methodologies Introduce operators to proven field inspection techniques Improve the confidence of personnel operating compressors by teaching them the basics of compressor theory Improve compressor reliability plantwide by teaching operating and inspection best practices Improve communication between operating and supporting plant personnel by providing a common vocabulary of compressor terms Help processing plants avoid costly failures by teaching operators how to identify early compressor issues during field inspections