Many industries today benefit from condition monitoring (CM). Although vibration analysis is the most common method, the emergence of new techniques stimulates CM experts from Zagros Petrochemical to use them to achieve the best diagnosis. This case study demonstrates the profitability of the promising acoustic emission technique in the timely diagnosis of a bearing defect. Zagros' Hamid Karimi explains.
07 February 2012
Members' Content
Here are the nominees for the 2012 Pump Industry Awards.
25 January 2012
Members' Content
Some industrial processes require the throttling of high pressure fluids. Hydraulic power recovery turbines can convert the excess pressure into mechanical shaft energy and increase the overall process efficiency. Here, Ron Adams from Sulzer Pumps looks at how reverse running pumps can be used as turbines as an economical solution to recover energy.
13 December 2011
Members' Content
C. Kallesøe, J. Aarestrup and K. Rokkjær of Grundfos analyse the control and design of booster sets from an energy perspective. They investigate how the structure and control can be used to minimize energy consumption, and demonstrate that equally sized pumps equipped with speed control and running at the same speed are a safe design choice.
06 December 2011
Members' Content
Harmonic distortion is a form of pollution in the electricity supply that can make equipment behave erratically. They can be difficult to identify and users often attribute the symptoms to other causes, frequently applying mitigating action that fails to solve the problem. Here, ABB gives a few examples of how harmonics can be effectively dealt with if properly identified.
22 November 2011
Members' Content
Centrifugal pumps are widely used in industry and many are driven by induction motors. Failure due to pump bearing degradation would result in an unscheduled shutdown leading to production and revenue losses. Parasuram Harihara from Corning Incorporated and Alexander Parlos from Texas A&M propose a technique to detect bearing deterioration using the motor’s electrical signals.
15 November 2011
Members' Content
While considerable energy savings can be achieved by installing variable speed drives in standard pump systems, VSDs are less common in submersible applications, being more difficult to implement. However, it is well worth the effort as the energy savings and process improvements can be enormous. Here, ABB examines the main factors to consider.
01 November 2011
Jeremy Salisbury from Brammer UK shows how ensuring that a centrifugal process pump operates at optimum speed and efficiency is key to maintaining productivity, reducing energy consumption and maximizing product life. He examines the technologies available to optimize operation and reliability, and the paybacks achievable through investment in appropriate control.
01 November 2011
When the wastewater and effluent infrastructure of the historic city of Krakow in Poland was in urgent need of renewal and updating, the main objectives being to improve the treatment of sewage which eventually flows into the Baltic Sea. A number of KSB's sewage submersible pumps and mixers were used to fulfil this objective.
14 September 2011
Since the Haiti earthquake in January 2010, contaminated water has been a contributing factor in the wide spread of cholera. Insufficient power supplies and water shortages are two major factors which needed to be overcome. Grundfos provided rotor and centrifugal pumping systems which combat these problems by using solar and wind energy.
07 September 2011