Empowering Pumps Maintenance & Reliability Summit

Hydro was proud to participate in this year’s Empowering Pumps‘ virtual Maintenance & Reliability Summit. This year’s summit brought together industry experts for a powerful conversation about today’s maintenance challenges.

The summit featured prominent voices including Hydro’s Greg Bell, who strives to be a solutions provider while bringing the end user perspective to the aftermarket business through his years of experience at Gulf/Chevron.

The discussion, led by Empowering Pumps & Equipment President, Vince Marino, revealed critical challenges that maintenance organizations face across industries, particularly the widespread issue of understaffed crews and the loss of experienced personnel. Participants explored how legacy equipment, built decades ago, continues to operate under conditions far different from their original design parameters, requiring innovative engineering solutions rather than simple replacements. They also shared compelling examples of how proper application knowledge and proactive maintenance cultures can prevent costly downtime and extend equipment life.

You can watch this year’s summit here:

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Learn more about Empowering Pumps and Equipment here.

Read more about Hydro’s case studies in performance and reliability improvement on our blog.

Empowering Pumps Maintenance & Reliability Summit

Join Hydro’s Bob Jennings for Empowering Pumps‘ Maintenance and Reliability Summit. Bob will be speaking at 11am CDT on Winning the Trifecta of Efficiency, Reliability, & Sustainability.

Register Here

This presentation focuses on the technological advancements that have been made in recent years regarding data capturing, impeller redesign, impeller casting, CNC manufacturing (i.e., 5-axis milling), and acceptance testing.

It showcases the fact that technology is advancing so rapidly that processes that we used 5-10 years ago have become obsolete. Remedies which were cost prohibitive 10 years ago can now be readily and economically achieved. The pump repair industry has moved from product-based processes remedies to solution-based processes.

Combined, these result in meaningful energy reduction, improved equipment reliability and sustainability, while assisting the end user improve ESG scores through quantifiable reporting.

 

Capability Spotlight: IMPEL

Maintenance documentation varies widely in quality, often being incomplete, vague, or outdated. Procedures may lack detail, rely on obsolete methods, or feature unclear diagrams. Sometimes these procedures are taken from OEM manuals, which are too generic and require design knowledge to understand which steps are applicable.

For many years, maintenance crews have been relying on the experience of their workforce to perform the work correctly despite poor instructions. However, mass retirement from an aging workforce, higher employee turnover rates, and leaner staffs have taken away this safety net of experience and leave our facilities at risk. One of the greatest risks to the safe and profitable operation of our plants is preventable errors that result in online equipment failure.

A maintenance procedure that is optimized for the world we live in now has different requirements than the procedures developed in the past.  Firstly, it needs to adequately capture the institutional knowledge of skilled professionals who are familiar with the equipment. Secondly, it needs to clearly illustrate each step in the procedure in a way that is easy to follow. Thirdly, it needs to accurately reproduce the design of the installed equipment instead of being overly generic. Lastly, it needs to be delivered in a format that reflects how the new generation of workers consume information- digital and interactive.

The last requirement may seem like more of a ‘want’ than a ‘need,’ but it is just as critical as the other three. Most workers who have graduated in the past 10-15 years are what are commonly referred to as ‘digital natives’ and have been immersed in a learning environment that depends heavily on digital assets.  Providing information in a way that is intuitive for them to use and matches the way they are used to interacting with information will help them retain that information and complete work more efficiently. This not only supports reducing risk for maintenance errors, it streamlines the work completed to save on labor hours needed for each job.

Hydro has addressed this need by developing IMPEL, an interactive, digital maintenance platform that replicates pump design and installation to clearly illustrate each step of the maintenance procedure. IMPEL uses an interactive 3D model of the equipment that is animated to illustrate each step of the maintenance procedure. Part of the development process includes an extensive overview of the procedure by Hydro’s experienced field service technicians to ensure that it includes best practices and to add notes and warnings into critical steps where mistakes may be made.

Introducing IMPEL from Hydro, Inc. on Vimeo.

Our maintenance professionals have a great responsibility- keeping our plants running safely and reliably. Let’s make sure they are armed with the best tools available.

Learn more about Hydro’s IMPEL or contact us for more information.

Empowering Pumps Maintenance & Reliability Summit

Join Hydro’s Marlin Schulz for Empowering Pumps‘ Maintenance and Reliability Summit. Marlin will be speaking at 10am CDT on the evolution of the service industry into the fourth industrial revolution.

Register Here

Today’s rotating equipment service market is flooded with new and innovative solutions that influence reliability and maintenance strategies. With all the options, choosing the best fit is overwhelming and the cost associated with the wrong choice can be high. In this session, Marlin will discuss the evolving service industry and its impact on reliability and maintenance practices. Attendees will gain a better understanding of the integration of services as our industry moves through to Industry 4.0, and what talking points and discussions should be happening within their organizations that can help take the next steps toward improved reliability and maintenance practices. Both end users and service providers will benefit from a better understanding of the many leverage points in the reliability and maintenance system and what role they play.

 

Root Cause Analysis Uncovers Casting Defects

Efficiency and reliability are at the forefront of a successful pumping system. As such, unplanned outages can be a detrimental disturbance to the overall operation. In this case, the end user’s high pressure multistage  BB5 barrel pump was experiencing severe vibration, unstable performance, and failure in the field leading to unit shutdown.

This particular unit, used in boiler feedwater operations, is critical to the plant’s uptime and throughput. Furthermore, continued failures can cause growing costs due to inevitable maintenance and repairs, often overlooking a long term solution. With each unplanned outage, the plant could face a significant loss in capital.

Previously, the pump had been running for six months before experiencing catastrophic failure, requiring a shutdown and removal for further analysis. Initially, the unit’s damaged components were repaired by welding, and the volute was reassembled and installed for use. Upon its installation, the power plant placed the unit back into service but encountered a second emergency shutdown after two months in operation.

Video: https://vimeo.com/362808909

Source: https://www.pumpsandsystems.com/root-cause-analysis-uncovers-casting-defects-critical-boiler-feedwater-unit