Emerson Exchange 365

Activity

Non-Intrusive Wireless Corrosion and Erosion Monitoring

Jim Cahill

A Joint Research Centre (JRC) Scientific and Policy Report, Corrosion‐Related Accidents in Petroleum Refineries , found [emphasis and hyperlink mine]: Notably, of the 137 major refinery accidents reported by EU countries to the EU’s eMARS [ Major Accident Reporting System ] database since 1984, around 20% indicated corrosion failure as an important contributing factor. Many other industries including oil & gas…
- 17 Jan 2017
Reducing Equipment Downtime and Improving Energy Efficiency via Wireless Power Monitoring

Jim Cahill

Equipment failure is a large part of unplanned downtime, slowdowns and/or loss in quality of the product being produced. Monitoring temperatures, vibration, differential pressures across filters are often performed to identify problems before failure occurs. Another important set of measurements that can provide early warning are the voltage, current and other electrical parameters on the motors driving equipment such…
- 16 Jan 2017
Reducing Equipment Downtime and Improving Energy Efficiency via Wireless Power Monitoring

Jim Cahill

Equipment failure is a large part of unplanned downtime, slowdowns and/or loss in quality of the product being produced. Monitoring temperatures, vibration, differential pressures across filters are often performed to identify problems before failure occurs. Another important set of measurements that can provide early warning are the voltage, current and other electrical parameters on motors driving the equipment such…
- 16 Jan 2017
Streamlining and Simplifying Maintenance Tech Actions

Jim Cahill

Process manufacturing plants with thousands or tens of thousands of measurement devices must keep these operating reliably and accurately for the process control strategies to perform effectively. Maintenance technicians have the responsibility to configure, troubleshoot and repair measurement instrumentation as problems develop. Traditionally, these technicians needed to remove the device from service, bring to the…
- 13 Jan 2017
The Path to Reliable Performance

Jim Cahill

Whether it’s your car or an asset in your production facility, running it to failure can be costly, unsafe and inconvenient. In terms of maintenance reliability, the U.S. National Response center noted that “ …it costs 50% more to repair a broken component than one that was addressed prior to its failure. ” And that statistic does not consider the cost of lost production, overtime and other costs. I heard about a great…
- 19 Dec 2016
Culturally Shifting to Top Quartile Reliability Performance

Jim Cahill

Whether driving down the road in your car or operating your manufacturing facility, the safest times are when operating at steady-state conditions. It’s the times in transient states, such as startups, shutdowns, turning at intersections, etc. where the probability of incidents increases. In an Uptime magazine article, The Cultural Shift That Can Save Lives , Emerson’s Nathan Pettus describes the importance of the…
- 14 Dec 2016
Maximizing Plant Asset Performance

Jim Cahill

In the face of scarce capital for manufacturers and producers across many industries, optimizing the performance of existing assets often increases in priority. In an ARC Advisory Group whitepaper, Driving Maximum Asset Capability (summary), author Dick Hill notes: In today's highly competitive global manufacturing environment, it is essential that all opportunities to invest capital be considered on equal basis.…
- 8 Nov 2016
Reliability Radio Interview with Mike Train

Jim Cahill

If your responsible for reliability and maintenance practices at your facility, I’m sure you’re very aware of Uptime magazine and the Reliabilityweb.com site. Last week at the Emerson Exchange conference in Austin, CEO and Publisher Terrence O’Hanlon recorded a 9:11 podcast interview with Emerson Automation Solutions Executive President, Mike Train . Terrence opened the interview asking Mike about the recently announced…
- 2 Nov 2016
Driving Maintenance Workflows with Condition Monitoring

Jim Cahill

At the Emerson Exchange conference in Austin, Emerson’s Will Goetz presented, Best Practices for Using Condition Monitoring to Drive Maintenance Workflows. His abstract: A well designed condition monitoring system can find the early warning signs of failures but what happens next is equally important. This session will explore real world failures to develop the best practice model for using condition information to…
- 26 Oct 2016
Wireless Continuous Pump Monitoring

Jim Cahill

Many of the pumps in process manufacturing and production processes are essential and their failure results in reduced or lost production and increased maintenance costs. In an Upstream Pumping article, Wireless Monitoring Reduces Pump Failures & Maintenance Costs , Emerson’s Brian Atkinson describes way to make use of technology to avoid these failures. He opens citing some statistics on the economic repercussions…
- 6 Oct 2016
Simplifying Local Smart Field Device Communications

Jim Cahill

The Industrial Internet of Things has opened great possibilities for remote experts with advanced analytical tools to diagnose issues before they lead to greater problems. However, there is still nothing like being there locally by the asset with an issue with powerful tools to diagnose it. News came out yesterday of a new smart field device communicator, built on human-centered design principles, for: …delivering…
- 5 Oct 2016
Improving Pump Continuous Monitoring

Jim Cahill

Unless you are lucky enough to have a process that flows downhill, you likely have pumps moving liquids through the process. And if these liquids come in large volumes such as hydrocarbon movement and storage facilities, these pumps can be very large and dangerous should failures occur. In a World Pipelines article, Flow management starts with pumps , Emerson’s Wally Baker describes how to improve reliability and efficiency…
- 23 Sep 2016
Condition Monitoring and Workflow Best Practices

Jim Cahill

Enjoy the late October outdoors in Austin, Texas This year’s Emerson Exchange conference for the Americas will take place on my home turf of Austin, Texas during the week of October 24 through 28. Registration is open and you can save $400 through the end of August on the registration fee. Knowing that getting approval to attend can be a challenge for some, the Emerson Exchange Board of Directors has a justification…
- 2 Aug 2016
Compressor Station Machinery Monitoring

Jim Cahill

In the continuing era of lower oil and gas prices, the focus remains on optimizing current production assets. In a World Pipelines article, Keeping compressor stations online , Emerson’s Stuart Raynor describes ways to reduce downtime and avoid lost production through continuous machinery monitoring. He describes compressor stations as being: …used throughout the pipeline network [and] are based on centrifugal compressors…
- 14 Dec 2015
Portable Vibration Monitoring Innovation Recognition

Jim Cahill

A key component of reliable operations is the health of the rotating machinery within a process manufacturing or production process. Monitoring the vibration levels on this machinery is an important component in an effective reliability-centered maintenance program. I mention this to take a moment to congratulate our team managing the CSI technology vibration analysis and predictive information products and services…
- 8 Dec 2015
How to Perform Internal Flow Simulations on Vortex Flowmeters

Jim Cahill

Let’s close this busy week with a look at how internal flow simulations in the Rosemount 8800D Vortex flowmeter help to provide health checks for these measurement devices. In these two YouTube videos, Emerson’s Lourdes Recio shows you step-by-step how to perform a health check of Rosemount 8800D vortex meter electronics using internal flow simulation by AMS Device Manager . In the first “how to” video, Health Check…
- 4 Dec 2015
Reliability Program Success through Direct Engagement for Organizational Culture Change

Jim Cahill

Fear of change is often the leading obstacle of progress. For process manufacturers and producers, reliability-centered maintenance concepts have been around since the 1970s. Technology advancements in sensors and wireless communications have vastly improved the technology side of maintenance and reliability initiatives, but the organizational workflow and cultures have limited their successes. In a new whitepaper…
- 6 Nov 2015
Monitoring Compressors to Avoid Unplanned Downtime

Jim Cahill

Compressors are important assets for most process manufacturers and producers. Common threats to their health include high vibration, fluctuations in gas flow, surge conditions, suction or discharge restrictions, temperature spikes, seal failures and inadequate lubrication. In this 3:50 YouTube video, Video Tutorial for Emerson’s Essential Asset Monitoring Software – Compressor Monitoring Module , Emerson’s Jordan Rogers…
- 4 Nov 2015
Saudi Aramco Ras Tanura Refinery Wins Reliability Program of the Year

Jim Cahill

Effective reliability programs affect safety, availability and efficiency for process manufacturers and producers. Recently, at the Emerson Exchange conference in Denver, Saudi Aramco’s Ras Tanura Refinery was awarded Reliability Program of the Year . The Saudi Aramco team reduced rotating equipment maintenance costs by 9%, slashed rotating equipment failures by 90% and eliminated 50,000 man-hours of preventative maintenance…
- 26 Oct 2015
IIoT Devices and Work Management Processes in Reliable Operations

Jim Cahill

Reliable process manufacturing and production is one of the pillars of top performing companies. In the ARC Advisory Group’s Industrial IoT/Industrie 4.0 Viewpoints blog, IBM guest blogger Jim Crosskey highlights the role of the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). In his post, Defining Asset Condition in the context of IIOT , he opens: As I travel around speaking with organizations on the topic of leveraging the…
- 22 Oct 2015
Business Justification for Maintenance and Reliability Readiness

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s Ken Planchard and Will Goetz presented Business Justification for Maintenance & Reliability Readiness at the Emerson Exchange conference in Denver. Here is their presentation’s abstract: Many organizations today do not think of Reliability as a business strategy. Executives require business cases for implementing any program, and it can be difficult for maintenance and reliability practitioners to build one…
- 14 Oct 2015
Vibration Monitoring of Control Valves Prevents Unplanned Shutdowns

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s Shawn Anderson teamed with a recycled paper mill staff member and their local business partner on an Emerson Exchange presentation, Vibration Monitoring of Control Valves Prevents Unplanned Shutdowns. Here is the presentation abstract: Two control valves in this recycled cardboard paper facility had experienced vibration related failures. These failures were difficult to detect and/or predict due to the variable…
- 14 Oct 2015
Planning and Integrating Reliability for Top Performance

Jim Cahill

The autumn edition of Innovations in Process Control is now published. It is also available in German , Italian , Spanish and French . This edition contains articles on: Reliability management consulting Reliability value chain Improved engineering efficiency drives reliability Process reliability starts in the basement Keeping a close eye on corrosion Innovative technologies Emerson Process Management…
- 7 Oct 2015
Improving Reliability through Predictive Maintenance

Jim Cahill

For process manufacturers and producers, reliability directly impacts safety, performance, and efficiency. As technologies continue to advance, predictive maintenance methods couple with improved work processes help to improve the reliability of process operations. This Thursday, September 24 at 2pm EDT , Plant Services Editor in Chief Thomas Wilk hosts a webinar on Predictive Maintenance . The webinar features Emerson…
- 22 Sep 2015
Internet of Things-Value Creator for End Users and Suppliers Alike

Jim Cahill

The reliability of your process manufacturing and production operations directly impacts overall safety, availability and profitability. In an earlier post, Integrating Reliability Practices for Top-Quartile Performance , we highlight how reliability translates into better performance. I share this as background for an ARC Advisory Group Industrial IoT/Industrie 4.0 Viewpoints blog post, IoT Changes Logistics for the…
- 11 Sep 2015