1. T or F:  Energy costs will rise next year.
2. T or F:  I know how much energy is costing my facility.
3. T or F:  My business uses energy about as efficiently as it can.

If you answered False to any of these questions, read on….

Energy costs are definitely going to increase next year, and the year after that.  If you think about it, why wouldn’t they?  Aside from escalating prices due to normal inflation, energy costs are bound to rise due to three main reasons:

• Most commercially-produced energy is from non-renewable resources.  Once it’s gone, it’s gone.
• Energy production is a dangerous business.
• Energy production has high environmental costs.

Consider electricity.  Electricity is produced in commercial quantities either through burning coal or splitting atoms.  Coal, while still abundant, is a non-renewable resource that is dangerous to extract (remember Quecreek?).  It’s also perhaps the dirtiest source of energy, requiring massive air pollution controls.  Nuclear energy has other problems (remember Three-Mile Island?).

What about Natural Gas?  This is another non-renewable resource that, like coal, is relatively abundant.  But it still has its supply-side swings, and a shortage this winter has experts thinking that the average household can expect to pay an additional $220 this heating season.

Well, there’s always Oil.  Too bad most of it is in areas that are either environmentally sensitive, like ANWR, or in areas of the world that are not always politically stable, and require shipping across oceans.

The point is, with all of the trouble involved in harvesting energy, is it any wonder that it costs so much?  And isn’t it a shame to waste such a precious resource?

But how do you determine if your facility is consuming energy efficiently?  You require a certain amount of energy to make a product or deliver a service.  Your energy costs are going to be what they are, right?

Well, yes and no.  You want to get your biggest “bang for the buck”.  You’re still going to keep the lights on, but why wouldn’t you want to keep them on for as little cost as possible?

The way to determine if your facility is consuming energy efficiently is to conduct an Energy Audit of your facility.  An energy audit will identify those areas of your energy consumption where savings can be achieved.  A good energy audit will highlight those Energy Conservation Opportunities that are available for little or no initial cost.

Remember…

You can’t manage what you can’t measure.

Contact IDEA for your energy management needs

From Manufacturing.Net, July 2007

Disasters come in many shapes and all sizes, which is why those who prepare for them prefer the term “emergency.” What may be a disaster for one organization may be a major inconvenience for another, but both groups will still treat them as emergencies.

In the context of the business world, the Federal Emergency Management Agency defines an emergency as “any unplanned event that can cause deaths or significant injuries to employees, customers or the public; or that can shut down your business, disrupt operations, cause physical or environmental damage, or threaten the facility’s financial standing or public image.”

Rather a broad definition, and thankfully emergencies do not happen very often. However, they DO happen, often at the most inconvenient times.

Those who have the responsibility of dealing with the emergency, the subsequent clean-up, and transition back to normal operations are always faced with sleep deprivation, time away from home, and nearly unbearable stress. Camping out in the parking lot without plumbing, eating Meals Ready To Eat (MRE’s), and working 16 hours a day is not a project many would willingly accept . . . read more here

This article was originally published in Plant Engineering’s online magazine Hotwire.

by Tom Logan, Frank Kordalski, and Brian Silowash

The Eliza Furnace Trail in downtown Pittsburgh gets its official name from the blast furnace that used to dominate the old J&L steel mill along the Monongahela River.  It gets its unofficial name “The Jail Trail”, because it starts near the new Allegheny County prison. 

The Eliza Furnace is long gone, but one remaining feature of the former J&L works is a galvanizing line owned and operated by MetalTech.

MetalTech manufactures hot-dipped galvanized strip for use in electrical enclosures and miscellaneous construction applications.  During the galvanizing process, the continuous strip of carbon steel is dipped in a molten zinc bath, called a “pot”.  Once the strip emerges from the pot, a pair of slotted nozzles, called “air knives”, blow the excess zinc from the strip.  The flow of compressed air through these knives controls the thickness of the zinc coating applied to the strip.

The air is compressed by a 250 HP, 3600 RPM blower.  At the time of installation in the late 60’s, air coating control was a new technology.  Because energy costs were a secondary concern, it was common for such equipment to be oversized.  In order to achieve the desired flows and pressures at the air knives, and prevent the blower from operating in the surge region, a 10” diameter bypass line was provided to exhaust excess air capacity through a modulating valve.  In order to reduce the resulting noise, a large silencer was installed at the end of the blowoff line along Second Avenue.

That silencer is just a stone’s throw away from the Jail Trail, between mile markers 2 and 3.  Because the trail is in an urban setting near traffic, it is not exactly a quiet bucolic setting.  Still, the blowoff was very noticeable, and contributed to the ambient noise.

Aging installations that remain not just operable but profitable, have a way of seeking their own level, and when the inlet guide vanes became inoperable, the plant settled into a steady-state operation that allowed the blowoff valve to be set in a constant throttled position.  The only process variables that had to be adjusted were the position of the air knives, and the positions of the two throttling valves that controlled flow to the knives.

In late 2003 a study was undertaken to determine if energy might be saved by converting the constant speed motor to a variable frequency drive.  Based on operating data, it was determined by the consulting engineer that it was possible to reduce the speed and still achieve the necessary flow and pressure.  In fact, if the blower could be kept away from its surge point, the noisy blowoff line could be rendered obsolete.

Because power varies with the cube of the speed, even a slight change in speed can result in significant savings.  The estimate for this retrofit was that the speed could be reduced to approximately 2430 RPM, based on an average product mix (the higher the flow, the thinner the coating).  The blower manufacturer was contacted for new curves for the predicted lower speeds. 

The speed reduction would drop the power consumption from 250 HP down to 65 HP.  At an electrical rate of $0.048/kW-hr, and a 700 hour operating schedule per month, the justification for this project was a savings of $4280 per month!

Engineering began in October 2003, and Requests for Proposals went out to various motor and drive manufacturers.  The existing motor was not rated for VFD service, and so would have to be replaced.

The new motor had a shorter base-to-centerline dimension than the old motor, so a new baseplate had to be designed.  Installation was phased over a number of outages, with the new baseplate and motor going in first, followed by the drive.  Start-up of the drive proved successful over a range of operating conditions.  An added benefit was that the bypass valve could be closed.

MetalTech expects to save over $50,000 per year from this retrofit, which had a Total Installed cost of $43,600.  And the joggers, bikers, and in-line skaters don’t miss the jet-like roar of the blowoff.

Tom Logan is the Maintenance Planner at MetalTech.  He was responsible for identifying and implementing this cost-saving project.

Frank Kordalski is the President of Renova Automation in Pittsburgh PA.  His firm designed the electrical and controls portions of the project.

Brian Silowash, P.E., is President of Innovative Design Engineering of America, LLC, a Pittsburgh-based engineering consulting firm specializing in facilities engineering.  With a strong emphasis on energy efficiency, IDEA, LLC was the prime consultant for this project.

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Filled with examples drawn from years of design and field experience, this practical guide offers comprehensive information on piping installation, repair, and rehabilitation. All of the latest codes, standards, and specifications are included.

Piping Systems Manual is a hands-on design and engineering resource that explains the reasons behind the designs. You will get full coverage of materials, components, calculations, specifications, safety, and much more. Hundreds of detailed illustrations make it easy to understand the best practices presented in the book.

• Need to know if a gasket is really Viton®? Give it a sniff. If it smells like cinnamon, it’s Viton®!
• If grease is oozing out of the seals of a bearing, have a stern talk with your maintenance mechanic. He’s over-lubricated the bearing, and blown out the seals. The bearing should be replaced on the next down-turn.
• Speaking of seals, they have two purposes: to keep dirt and water out, and to keep the lubricant in.
• Wipe grease fittings clean before lubricating to prevent dirt from being forced through the fitting and into the bearing.
• Bearings must be kept clean. They should be stored in their factory-supplied containers until ready for use. If you are in the middle of an installation, and need to take a break, cover the bearing with a clean cloth to prevent dirt from contaminating the bearing. A side-grinder that your buddy is using across the shop can throw grit pretty far.
• If you are having trouble seeing into a narrow space, try an inspection mirror. You can shine a light into the mirror to illuminate the space in question.
• If you can hold your hand on a warm object for a count of ten, the object is about 125 deg F, plus-or-minus 5 deg F.
• Gate valves are NEVER to be used for throttling service. Use butterfly, globe, or ball valves.
• When throwing an electrical switch at an MCC, stand off to the side. Push on the handle with an open grip, and turn your face away from the switch.
• 750 GPM is a little over 1 million Gallons per Day.
• A cavitating pump really does sound like it’s pumping marbles. This is always due to poor suction conditions. Sometimes, it just can’t be helped (e.g. on a pump at the bottom of an evaporator. The temperatures are just too high). But keep in mind that it’s destroying your pump.
• Delta P alarms across filters are the best way to determine if a filter needs to be replaced. Some plants disable the alarms, or just as bad, remove or punch holes in the filters!
• Reverse flow through a standard basket or Y-strainer can collapse the screen. The screens are often very flimsy.

There are lots of piping codes in use throughout the world. Some countries, like Canada, take advantage of the considerable body of knowledge contained in the US codes.

In the US, we follow the ASME Code for Pressure Piping, B31. The code was first published in 1935 by the ASA (American Standards Association, now known as ANSI, the American National Standards Institute). The responsibility for developing the code was assigned to the ASME (American Society of Professional Engineers).

The ASME Code is so extensive that it was more convenient to break it up into several separate documents, which represent various industries. The code now consists of:

• B31.1 Power Piping
• B31.3 Process Piping
• B31.4 Pipeline Transportation Systems for Liquid Hydrocarbons and Other Liquids
• B31.5 Refrigeration Piping
• B31.8 Gas Transportation and Distribution Piping
• B31.9 Building Services Piping
• B31.11 Slurry Transportation Piping Systems

Piping codes are used by engineers and designers to design piping systems and system components. Contractors use the codes to construct piping systems.

Usually, by the time you get involved in a project, most of the piping specifications are written, and the codes to be used have been laid out in the specifications. But how did the guy who wrote the specs know which codes to apply? Much of the time, the answer lies in the codes themselves. The codes will explain what their intended scope is. But the codes are often applied to piping systems that are outside their scope.

This sounds like it might be a big problem, but the intelligent application of a piping code outside of its scope is not necessarily bad.

Let’s say that you are the engineer in charge of setting up the piping specs for a plant that is going to produce turbo-widgets for the up-and-coming e-widget industry. The heat is on to get into production right away, and the Chief Engineer is visiting you every 15 minutes to see if you have issued the specs for bid yet.

The first thing you notice after going to the code, is that the e-widget industry is not represented. And you can’t find any mention of piping systems used in the production of turbo-widgets.

But you know that the plant uses air for the turbo-stamping lines, it uses water to cool the ovens that bake the widgets, it uses hydraulics for the robots that assemble the turbo-widgets, and there is also high-pressure steam for heating the reactor vessels that produce the proprietary widget compounds.

Like many projects of this type, a review of the available codes indicates that your choices are probably going to reduce down to B31.1, B31.3, and perhaps B31.9. If some cooling processes are used in the process, you might have to rely on B31.5 as well.

Some of these codes are more stringent than others. For instance, the Allowable Stresses for a given piping material is less in B31.1 and B31.9, than it is in B31.3. It’s the same material, made the same way! But the Allowable Stresses are different. In this respect, B31.1 and B31.9 are more stringent that B31.3.

You can always apply a more stringent code than is required for an application. Doing that does not compromise safety.

So you could specify the most stringent code for all of these services, but that might mean that your 2″ diameter low-pressure cooling water lines would be constructed out of Schedule 160 pipe. And by the way, since 2″ Schedule 160 pipe has a wall thickness of 0.344″, the ID is reduced, and maybe you better use 3″ pipe so your head losses aren’t so high.

But the Chief Engineer isn’t crazy about the idea, since the piping costs are going to go way up. And a big part of engineering is doing the safest things in the most economical manner.

So you decide to use B31.1 for the steam and condensate systems only, and B31.3 for everything else. You might want to use B31.1 for high-pressure hydraulics lines, especially if they are in an area where corrosion is a factor.

Innovative Design Engineering of America, LLC specializes in writing piping specs, performing code calculations, and applying piping codes. We also do piping stress analyses for both static and dynamic loads. Contact us with your questions about piping systems and components.

A list of items the designer must know before designing a baseplate might include:

• The footprint of the machine
• The machine weight and dynamic loads

Once the weight and dynamic loads are known, the Structural Engineer can determine how many and what size anchor bolts must be used to secure the baseplate to the floor. With this knowledge, the designer can determine a rough thickness for the baseplate.

Without undertaking a rigorous analysis of the bending of plates, the following method may be used. If you know the size of the AB, you can look up the thickness of the nut and washer. The nut must be below the surface of the baseplate, in a counterbored hole. The thickness of the baseplate can be determined by doubling the thickness of the nut, and providing an allowance for the washer and for machining.

The top surface of the baseplate must be smooth and flat. A surface finish of 125 microinches is usually sufficient. If the top surface was not machined, there would be mill scale present, and it would be impossible to accurately shim the machine during alignment. If the machined surface is too rough, with deep machining grooves, over the course of time it is conceivable that brinnelling of the ridges could occur, with a subsequent settling and misalignment of the machine.

The diameter of the AB holes should exceed the diameter of the AB by about 1/8”, to permit some “wiggle room” for the anchor bolt.

For a large baseplate, a threaded hole for the jackscrews must be located within about 2” of each of the AB holes. It is important that there be no deflection of the baseplate. Therefore, the jackscrews must be placed at each AB hole, and close to them.

Grout holes should also be provided on large baseplates, to facilitate the placing of grout. Sometimes, if there is a large side force on the equipment that must be transferred to the foundation, shear blocks may be welded to the bottom of the baseplate. Provisions must be made to ensure that there are no air pockets created in the grout between such shear blocks. This can be accomplished by placing vent holes or grout holes in these locations.

Finally, as an aid in setting the baseplate, it is sometimes desirable to machine alignment lines across the center of the top surface of the baseplate. The millwrights can use these lines to accurately shoot in the baseplate prior to locking down the AB nuts.

Proper design and installation of baseplates leads to successful machinery installations. A good bond between the baseplate and the foundation minimizes vibrations. A flat, smooth surface minimizes alignment problems. All of this adds up to lower maintenance, longer life, and pride in a well-executed job.

Usually the baseplate will be installed at an elevation that is slightly lower than the desired elevation of the foot of the piece of equipment that is to be set. The reason for this is to allow for some minor adjustment using shims. The difference between the set elevation and the desired elevation is usually about 1/16”. If the piece of equipment is very large, like a paper machine calender, the baseplate may be set exactly at the elevation desired for the foot of the calender. This is because it is impossible to shim a large, heavy piece of equipment. Keep in mind that there are always construction tolerances, and terms like “exact” need to take the tolerance into account.

A baseplate is held in place by anchor bolts (ABs) that are secured in the concrete floor. For new construction, a template is usually made out of plywood, and the anchor bolts are locked in place with nuts. The template is secured in its proper place during the concrete pour, ensuring that the anchor bolts are located properly. Often a sleeve will be located around the anchor bolt. The purpose of the sleeve is to allow the anchor bolt to be “wiggled” as needed to permit the baseplate to be slid over the AB holes. On a large baseplate, it might be too much to expect that all of the ABs will be perfectly plumb. A little wiggle room is all that is needed. In order to prevent the concrete from entering the annulus between AB and the ID of the sleeve, the annulus is often filled with a ring of polystyrene. The polystyrene is dissolved after the pour with acetone, or it can be burned away with a torch.

When setting a baseplate on an existing concrete floor, the ABs may be cemented into the floor with chemical anchors. Often the floor is roughened by bushhammering to get a good bond between the old concrete and the new grout that will be placed under the baseplate. There is a wide variety of concrete bonding products available now though, and some recommend against roughening the surface because it can introduce microcracks into the existing floor.

The baseplate is then placed over the ABs. With nuts placed over the ABs, the elevation of the top of the baseplate is set. The elevation of the top of the baseplate is set in one of two ways. It may be shimmed, or it may be held up with jacking screws. If shims are used, it is best to remove them after the grout is placed. Otherwise, a square corner of a shim might produce a stress concentration in the grout. Usually, if shims are used, they are wedges that are greased to keep the grout from sticking to them. A better method is to use jacking screws. These are also greased to prevent the grout from adhering to them.

Tension is placed on the ABs by torquing the nuts. The level and elevation of the baseplate is checked, and the grout is placed. After the grout is completely set, the jack screws are removed from the baseplate.

There are many types of grout available. Some are very fluid and can be poured, and some are very dry and must be packed into place. It is important that the grout establish intimate contact with the underside of the baseplate, since it is the grout which distributes the weight of the equipment to the floor below. On large baseplates, there may be large pour holes in the center to permit better distribution of the grout.

When the grout begins to dry, it is often struck to produce a finished appearance. The easiest way to do this is to use the top of the baseplate as a guide or screed, and have the grout chamfered to the top of the baseplate (See Figure 1).

Figure 1

However, this is also the worst way to strike the surface, and will surely result in cracked grout. The reason for this is that changes in temperature of the baseplate will cause expansion and vibration of the baseplate will cause slight movement. This will cause the grout to crack.

Instead, the grout should only rise to the bottom of the baseplate, and be struck from there (see Figure 2).

Figure 2

Sometimes a grout pocket will be built up around the baseplate as in Figure 3. In that case, the grout is contained by a wall of concrete. In that case, it is acceptable to have the grout extend above the bottom of the baseplate, since there is little chance that it will crack.

Figure 3

Especially in wet environments, there is one additional step that is sometimes taken once the grout has cured and the jack screws or shims have been removed. In order to prevent water from standing in the counterbored holes where the AB nuts are, this space is sometimes filled with molten lead. This practice is probably falling by the wayside due to health problems related to lead. Certainly another material, even grout, could be substituted.

Before setting the equipment, the baseplate should be cleaned. The equipment is set. Bolts are passed through the feet of the equipment, and threaded into the baseplate. After alignment, the equipment may be doweled into place by reaming tapered holes through the equipment’s feet and into the baseplate. This ensures that there will be no movement between the machine and the baseplate. It also provides easier alignment if, in the future, the piece of equipment must be removed and re-installed.

Some millwrights will place blocks against the equipment feet and weld these to the baseplate, instead of doweling. This is adequate for imprecise installations, but must be considered crude, since the heat of welding will warp the baseplate. And if you have paid to have the baseplate machined flat, and carefully installed, a warped baseplate is no better than a piece of hot rolled steel.