Optimized Equipment Lubrication

252 Pages·2021·6.695 MB·English

by  Bloch.

Heinz Bloch
Optimized Equipment Lubrication
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Heinz Bloch
Optimized
Equipment
Lubrication
Conventional Lube, Oil Mist Technology,
and Full Standby Protection
2nd Edition
Author
Heinz Bloch
267 Sunnyvale East
Montgomery, TX 77356
United States of America
[email protected]
ISBN 978-3-11-074934-2
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-074944-1
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-074955-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021947270
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Cover image: Adobestock 301548692
Typesetting: Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd.
Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck
www.degruyter.com
This book is dedicated to competent professionals, the willing and patient
sharers of knowledge, communicators, and value-adders. We hold them in
high esteem.

Preface
As of 2021, it has been estimated that only 6% of the world’s printed knowledge can
be downloaded from the Internet. Moreover, much of what can be downloaded from
the Internet consists of dots, or “islands of knowledge.”
Connecting the dots requires considerable experience, much of which comes
from reading books. Fortunately, there are important and lasting side benefits from
reading: By reading we learn to express our thoughts in the form of intelligible sen-
tences, be they spoken or written.
Intelligibly structured sentences can make the case for technology and will be at
the core of a discipline that is loosely defined as reliability engineering. Reliability
engineers read no-nonsense books with technical content that share two common
threads: (1) The writers know what they are talking about and (2) their writers remain
fully focused on the targeted readership. Erroneous ideas are challenged by knowl-
edgeable authors and not allowed to confuse the issue or task at hand.
Knowing our audience. This text deals with the implementation of cost and
reliability-o ptimized equipment lubrication and preservation matters as they relate
to a facility’s physical assets. The targeted readership includes operating technicians,
maintenance professionals, reliability engineers and, especially, managers at all job
levels. Some readers will be working in oil refinery and process plant maintenance
and repair shops; others could be working for EPC (engineering, procurement, con-
struction) contractors, or as field mechanics, millwrights, project engineers, mid-
level managers, and project executives in oil refining and other industries. All are
equipment users and people whose actions influence equipment reliability.
Professionals and motivated individuals in general benefit from knowledge
updates. This creates opportunities for authors and publishers; they respond to
reader requests and the development of new technologies. We cite these among the
motivators who led the author to work on the second edition of Optimized Lubrica-
tion soon after the release of the first (2019) edition. In particular, the material on oil
mist technology deserved to be re-organized and expanded for effectively updating
“manager-influencers.”
Defusing anecdotes. The author is again emphasizing that this text reflects his
own work-related facts and experiences. It is interesting to note how factual experi-
ences often differ from anecdotes. This text defuses many anecdotes.
Feedback from our targeted readership indicates that there is ample room for
improving equipment life. Whenever equipment MTBR (mean time between repairs)
does not reach industry averages and/or profit margins fall short of reasonable pro-
jections, we (the author and his publisher) suggest that readers ponder over questions
such as: Could failure to meet projections or expectations be rooted in issues that
are not popular to pursue? Or: Could lack of success be rooted in a mere anecdote
being passed down and implemented/applied after being separated from its original
context? And here is one more: Could it be that management is distrustful of a reli-
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110749441-202
VIII   Preface
ability technician’s recommendations because, in the past, ineffective action steps
were initiated by managers who were responding to opinions instead of facts? Solid
professional employees must support their managers with facts, not opinions.
Management support is essential. Ideally and logically, value-adding asset
reliability-related publications take past management hurdles into account. Relevant
material will remind us that it would be a mistake to expect reliability improvements
without the continuing support and cooperation of many interacting job functions.
Unlike water flowing from a tap, reliability pursuits cannot be turned on and off at
will. Putting it another way, equipment reliability is clearly affected by the imple-
mentation skills of the people in the trenches, so-to-speak, and by the perceptions of
everyone between the lowly workers and their higher management. Interrupted reli-
ability pursuits send the message that such pursuits are ranked somewhere between
optional and meaningless. Continuity is important.
Every one of us fits in somewhere and somehow influences asset reliability. By
way of an automobile analogy, the driver and maintenance technician and design
engineer carry equal weight. If one of them slacks off, reliability becomes illusory. We
need to apply the same logic in our plants. We must accept that our respective respon-
sibilities overlap; here, everybody matters and fulfills a role.
How material is presented to the reader. The text highlights pertinent facts
after explaining them accurately and non-judgmentally. Whenever possible, the
lead-in paragraphs to a chapter are presented in the form of a Management Digest.
One or more short summary sentences at the end of the chapter summarize what the
reader has learned.
For accessibility, we aimed to index and properly cross-reference the material in
this book. Facts are non-negotiable and, unlike opinions, will always add value. This
is the author’s core belief since his first exposure to high school physics in 1945 and
a fully science-based apprenticeship with basic on-the-job training in 1950. This core
belief was strengthened during and long after receiving formal engineering degrees
in 1962 and 1964. Please keep this in mind when you read about Optimized Equipment
Lubrication: Conventional Lube, Oil Mist Technology, and Full Standby Protection.
Heinz P. Bloch
Montgomery, TX, August 2021.
Acknowledgments
Don Ehlert, a pioneering technical man and valued colleague in the years from 1979
until his death in 2019, is the source of most photos relating to oil mist technology. The
author found a few others in binders documenting his “prior life” at Exxon Research
and Engineering and Exxon Chemicals (1965–1986). Many of the older illustrations
originated with Lubrication Systems Inc., Houston, TX.
Virtually all recent and fully updated oil mist illustrations were contributed by
Houston-based oil mist design and installation firm T.F. Hudgins, Houston, TX. Key
contributors Weldon Mundy and Keith Macaluso went out of their way to provide
high-quality graphics and pricing that reflects exact oil mist hardware procurement
costs as of mid-2021.
Among several other sources of additional illustrations and narratives, special
thanks go to my talented machinery engineering colleague Hurl Elliott. Hurl, a true
multi-tasker, was often able to put his computer skills in good use. Both he and my
son Kenneth Bloch, a process reliability expert in his own right, interrupted their engi-
neering consulting tasks by responding to my last-minute requests. Hurl also managed
to dig up snippets of information we had used in our years with Exxon Chemicals.
Appreciation is expressed to a highly proficient team of engineers at AESSEAL.
They explained bearing housing protector seals in their many variants and their
important applications. I was able to call on team members Chris Rehmann (with
AESSEAL/USA before retiring in 2016), and David Amory, Global Marketing Manager
with AESSEAL, Inc., Rotherham, United Kingdom.
Texas A&M University (TAMU) played an important role behind the scenes. The
author’s involvement with TAMU’s International Turbomachinery and Pump Users
Symposia commenced with participation (in the early 1970s), initially with TAMU
Turbo and, starting in 1982, serving as one of the founding members of TAMU’s Inter-
national Pump Users Symposia. We (the “we” is used to indicate close cooperation
and frequent communication between author and publisher) acknowledge TAMU’s
far-reaching contributions to the teaching of equipment reliability. TAMU routinely
allowed the author to use the information included in my tutorials and presentations
at TAMU in the decades since 1972. Portions of these later found their way into books,
conference papers, and articles.
But I also benefited from attending dozens of skillfully led users’ discussion group
sessions at perhaps two dozen TAMU’s Pump Symposia, and from the extensive network-
ing contacts that resulted. Attendees of these discussion group sessions received and
disseminated actionable information. Their knowledge was updated, and the attendees
confirmed the status of lube-related issues and advancements made by their plants. In
many instances, important statistics and feedback came directly from users in other parts
of the world. In this regard, Marty Williams a highly experienced machinery engineer
working for a world-scale oil refinery in Australia, deserves our special appreciation.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110749441-203