When the UK’s Buncefield oil storage terminal exploded in 2005 it was said to be the biggest blast in Europe since the Second World War. The disaster was caused by faulty equipment used to monitor the flow of petrol entering a tank and is a stark reminder of the need for a strict maintenance regime in severe service applications.

There is no single definition of a severe service application, but it can be thought of as any process where the consequences of a failure are likely to be severe. Among those processes may be any that involve hazardous chemicals, such as ammonia or caustic acid. So, the question operators must ask themselves is ‘what would the consequences be if a particular actuator failed?’

While monitoring and maintaining all flow control equipment properly is important, focusing the highest level of maintenance on the most critical actuators can prevent serious damage, expensive shutdowns, and protect lives.

Maintaining Critical Actuators

Effective post-product sale services address the need to monitor and maintain critical actuators that manage the flow in various sectors, including oil and gas, water, power, chemical, process, and industrial applications. These services provide lifetime management that proactively maintains critical equipment with the aim of avoiding failures.

To determine the appropriate level of support for a site, experienced engineers work closely with companies to assess each unique situation. This collaborative approach ensures that maintenance strategies are tailored to the specific needs and risks associated with each installation, particularly in severe service applications where reliability is paramount.

Experienced maintenance engineers and plant managers aim to identify the most critical actuators in any facility. Their goal is to determine which actuators would cause the most significant problems, costliest downtime, or severe process interruptions if they were to fail. In a facility with 100 actuators, this assessment might highlight just 10 that require the highest level of maintenance, due to the severe impact their unavailability would have on operations.

Given that not every actuator failure would lead to a serious incident, tiered maintenance strategies have become common in the industry. These typically offer basic, standard, and Enhanced level of service.

For severe service applications, the enhanced level is often the most appropriate. Companies can choose an enhanced package for actuators controlling their severe service processes and other levels for less critical situations.

The different tiers of maintenance vary in their scope and frequency of maintenance activities. While a basic package might involve periodic site visits for external health check inspections, an enhanced offering typically includes more frequent visits, thorough internal inspections, and proactive replacement of components such as seals, oil, and other parts as required.

These maintenance strategies can be enhanced with an intelligent asset management system, which collects data on various parameters such as vibration, temperature, torque, number of starts, and power status. This data is then analysed using advanced algorithms to assess the health of an actuator and generate recommendations for maintenance, helping to prevent failures and potential safety incidents or process shutdowns.

As industries increasingly move towards electrification, intelligent asset management is becoming more prevalent. Modern electric actuators often come equipped with data loggers to facilitate this approach.

While safety is paramount, the financial implications of actuator failure can also be significant. For instance, a company operating in Asia reported that a single critical actuator, if it were to fail, could cost $1 million a day in downtime. Such scenarios underscore the importance of appropriate service support, especially for critical equipment in severe service applications.

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