Effective maintenance makes a difference

Nov. 22, 2016

Last month’s Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition & Conference (WEFTEC) in New Orleans was my first, and it did not disappoint. Our team witnessed the …

Last month’s Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition & Conference (WEFTEC) in New Orleans was my first, and it did not disappoint. Our team witnessed the unveiling of brand-new products and learned about several well-established technologies that have become industry standards. I was also fortunate to meet some of our readers and make new contacts as we explored the exhibit hall.

The week after WEFTEC, Group Associate Editor Amanda Hosey and I traveled to Pennsylvania for the Mid-Atlantic Pump & Process Equipment Symposium held at Geiger Pump and Equipment‘s Aston facility. We got some hands-on experience disassembling and reassembling pumps as well as installing mechanical seals.

The Process Flow Network editors met with the Pulsafeeder team

This month’s issue deals with an important topic: maintenance. A maintenance plan should always be in place and top of mind, and just as the weather changes with the seasons, so do equipment and facility maintenance needs, necessitating that winter maintenance steps are included in this plan.

Maintenance strategies are not one-size-fits-all solutions, and SKF USA Inc. begins our cover series with a discussion of the differences between reactive, preventive and predictive maintenance. Tsurumi America continues this cover series with an article on pump failure analysis.

Group Associate Editor Amanda Hosey helped disassemble a pump at Geiger’s Mid-Atlantic Pump & Process Equipment Symposium

Next read how common seal materials are affected by water glycol fluids in Trelleborg Sealing Solutions’ article. This topic is especially important as High-Pressure/High-Temperature fields grow. T.A. Cook Consultants explores effective turnaround optimization, while AMETEK Solidstate Controls and BTECH Inc. discuss how uninterruptible power supply systems contribute to efficiency.

As you prepare your facilities and equipment for the winter months, I hope you will find helpful resources in our magazine and on FlowControlNetwork.com. Please feel free to share any maintenance-related success stories, troubleshooting tips or photos with us.

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