Small Tricks to Prevent Big Problems
Do you still remember the days when works are so stressful? When the demand and the source are greatly imbalance? When days felt longer as you need to work for full 7-days a week? Remember what happened then? You were exhausted, or even worse, fallen in sickness.
Same as our body, turbines – on the other hand – also need extra ‘care’ that is called maintenance.
It has come a long way for turbines to evolve, improve, and change over the time. In order to produce a highly efficient and extremely reliable power and energy for human to use like today, machines need to be taken care of, too.
While all you need is to always remember these 5 Tips to help turbines do their best:
- KEEP IT CLEAN
Always keep turbines clean! Cleanliness of your machines could ensure the longest equipment and lubricant life. Contaminated substances may significantly reduce the life of bearings and gears, affect servo valve operation, and promote system foaming.
- WATCH OUT FOR WATER
Water is clearly not a friend in this situation. As for turbine oil, water can promote rust and corrosion, speed up the rate of oil oxidation, and promote other degradation processes such as hydrolysis. Water contamination limits should be checked regularly and using good oil analysis programme to provide you with the right information. In general, water levels should be kept below 500 ppm for gas turbines and 1,000 ppm for steam turbines.
- ANALYSE YOUR OIL
All turbine oils should be subjected to a proactive oil analysis monitoring. Many published turbine oil condition monitoring guidelines are available from ASTM, ISO and various equipment manufacturers and lubricant suppliers.
- ELMINATE LEAKAGE
Always in a regular basis for any possible leakage in your machine. If there’s any, it is important to eliminate them as soon as possible. Common sources of leakage include: bearing seals, oil-supply lines, valve connections, and cooler tube joints.
- MAINTAIN ACCURATE RECORDS
Always maintain accurate records of Temperature and Operations. By keeping it accurate and always recorded, it will provide you alerts for sudden changes, thus can be investigated & analysed quickly.
Last but not least, it is never too late to seek for third-party and/or expert support to maximise your production. Maintenance is the center of our philosophy in Shell. Maintenance is a power to empower progress. We are willing to work closely with our partners. “How” you may ask? We could work together in consulting, training or even assistance.
For us, a lubricant is not a separate part from the machine. Although it does not assemble from the beginning with the other machines, it worked together as one car, or even a turbine. Just like that, we wanted to be with our partners in their ways to maintain their progress.