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When Sovereign Lubricants & Seals were approached by a major UK nuclear power generation provider to supply an anti-seize for use on site to prevent stress corrosion cracking of stainless steel alloys and for use as a general grease for maintenance use there was no hesitation in recommending an immediate solution to this age old problem.
 
Sovereign (who sell the ΩMEGA range of quality lubricants) sell a product called ΩMEGA 99N which is a nuclear grade anti-seize grease. "The difference" says Sovereign M.D Steve Chesters "is that normal greases and anti-seize compounds contain high levels of sulphur, chlorides, lead and halogens which can cause stress and corrosion cracking of stainless and nickel alloys . ΩMEGA 99N is different in that it contains virtually no contaminants and as an added bonus it withstands acids, alkalis, water, salt air and most chemical fumes. The product can be used in many industries such as Oil, Chemical and Natural Gas Refineries as well as Chemical Plants and Pulp and Paper Mills, in fact anywhere where corrosion takes place

By David Larner CEng. Technical Training Solutions

With the accountants having the loudest voices in the board room these days, engineering training managers often find it very difficult to be heard because it is hard to put a value on training. In this article Technical Training Solutions (TTS), the Kent based Skills Company makes a case for short, practical courses that concentrate on competence.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is something accountants understand.   TTS has an extensive client list that includes companies such as Northern Foods, Glaxo Smith Kline, Rivita and Rolls Royce. They all agree that a well trained asset care team will always make a positive impact on OEE - that does improve the bottom line operating costs.

The fundamental problem all training managers face is what form of training is needed. Training is expensive, fact. But the cost of ignorance is much higher, so no one should even begin to consider what the cost of the wrong training might be.

We change a lot of oil in our plants, mills, mines and factories. What are we doing to change our lubrication culture? In their book Learning to Fly, Collison and Parcell, employees of British Petroleum (BP), suggest a predictable pattern in achieving sustained culture change, which is a function of effort and time (Figure 1).

Lower-quartile performers operate in a state of "unconscious incompetence" - ignorance is bliss. It takes no effort and no time to exist in the state of unconscious incompetence. They perform poorly, and because they are unaware of it, there is no perceived need to change. When a manager or other influential member learns through some minimal effort that there is a better way to operate, the performers become aware of their shortcomings, which creates a perceived gap. Collison and Parcell call this gap "conscious incompetence." It is this new awareness that throws a wrench (spanner) in the works, forcing the organization to correct its deficiency or make a conscious decision to live with it.

 

 

Seaward Electronic has developed a new integrated testing solution to ensure the safe condition of workplace electrical equipment and appliances.

The new Advanced PATSolutions package is designed to enable electrical contractors, maintenance engineers and plant service teams the opportunity to work smarter, improving productivity and effectiveness.

The Advanced PATSolutions package is intended for those electrical engineers and contractors that have an electrical safety testing responsibility in larger workplaces where a computer-based records system is required, alongside the automatic tagging and labelling of appliances after testing.

 

Calibration is an essential element of any instrumentation maintenance program. However, calibration operations can be long and time-consuming. By using the Beamex

A new condensate separator, introduced by Condensate Systems Ltd, puts environmental compliance within the financial reach of all compressor users. The Sepura range represents a radically new approach to separator design, from a company with many years

JOHN CRANE Safematic has launched an enhanced version of its Safeunit seal water control system that has already been proven to increase the reliability of pumpg and process machinery while reducing water consumption levels by up to 80%.

The new Safeunit Ultima is designed for use in harsh operating environments where high temperature, high pressure and chemically aggressive elements are present.

This makes it ideal for extreme applications found in pulp, paper and chemical industry processes, plus a wide variety of mining and general industrial uses.

Tel: 0161 886 5993            www.johncrane.co.uk I

Predictive maintenance (PdM) techniques are commonly used on motors and drives. But how often is the power to the equipment inspected? Adding basic power quality measurements to equipment maintenance procedures can head off unexpected failures in both the equipment and the power system.

Cost savings
Insurance claims data in the NFPA 70B maintenance standard show that roughly half of the cost associated with electrical failures could be prevented by regular maintenance. A study published in IEEE 493-1997 says that a poorly maintained system can attribute 49 percent of its failures to lack of maintenance.

To determine the cost of a failure, it helps to consider three key categories: