| Date | March/April 2013 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Return to Journal Index | |
March/April 2013 Inspectioneering Journal Article Index
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March/April 2013 Inspectioneering JournalBy Hearl E. Mead Jr. at Shell Oil CompanyOver the past few years increased feedstock flexibility has become a growing reality for sustainability of the refining business, requiring processing of more difficult crudes, increased volumes of spot cargoes, and rapid response to crude acceptance requests. Equipment reliability and process safety threats have occurred in the industry from changes in crude supplies or varying crude blends and quality.
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March/April 2013 Inspectioneering JournalBy Thomas Phan at Bureau Veritas Inspectorate, and Mike Bartholmey at Bureau Veritas InspectorateFor crude oil refiners and traders, information is the lifeblood of their operations and business decisions. The information obtained by crude oil assays, which includes physical properties and compositional analysis of a crude oil, provides in-depth insight and serves as an important decision-making tool.
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March/April 2013 Inspectioneering JournalBy Greg Garic at Stress Engineering Services, Inc.If an operator finds cracking in a furnace waste heat boiler, excessive thinning in an absorption tower, or severe bulging in a converter, FFS assessments—not standard code analyses—are needed to evaluate the unit’s mechanical integrity. FFS assessments, according to the American Petroleum Institute (API), are “quantitative engineering evaluations that are performed to demonstrate the structural integrity of an in-service component containing a flaw or damage.”
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March/April 2013 Inspectioneering JournalBy Greg Alvarado at Inspectioneering Journal
A pattern of requests for key performance indicators (KPIs) related to equipment integrity management (IM) programs has appeared on Inspectioneering’s LinkedIn group discussion as well as other industry forums. Furthermore, the topic came up numerous times at the recent API Inspection Summit. Performance is the key.
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March/April 2013 Inspectioneering JournalBy Borja Lopez at Innerspec Technologies, Inc.This is the first in a series of three articles that will introduce Electro Magnetic Acoustic Transducer (EMAT) and its practical applications in the field of nondestructive testing (NDT). EMAT, or Electro Magnetic Acoustic Transducer, is an Ultrasonic Testing (UT) technique that generates the sound in the part inspected instead of the transducer.
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Partner ContentThe Vanta handheld XRF is Olympus’ first full spectrum PMI analyzer that is IP65 rated and drop tested. The analyzer provides accurate, repeatable material chemistry and alloy grade matching in as little as 1–2 seconds. Operation is simple with an intuitive touch screen and swipe interface. Optional Wi-Fi, with the Olympus Scientific Cloud, provides seamless connectivity for efficient data and fleet management.
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March/April 2013 Inspectioneering JournalBy Thomas Fortinberry at Quest Integrity Group, and James R. Widrig at Quest Integrity
Steam reformers are critical assets to many refining and chemical manufacturing plants and facilities, and it is well known that the reformer is one of the most challenging assets to maintain and operate. Common problems in reformer operations include burner firing, flue gas distribution, and catalyst damage.
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March/April 2013 Inspectioneering JournalBy Cliff Knight, P.E. at KnightHawk Engineering, Inc.It is another day at the plant and as usual, your boss calls and says there is a meeting in the conference room that he wants you to attend regarding a compressor failure. That is all you know, but from experience you know it must be something major since all the “brass” will be in the conference room.
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March/April 2013 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Morgan at Thermo Fisher Scientific, and William Fotoples at Thermo Fisher ScientificSulfidic corrosion of piping and equipment within the refining industry continues to be a significant cause of leaks and issues that can lead to early replacements, unplanned outages, and incidents potentially resulting in loss of property and injury to workers.
