What difficult problems have arisen in the use of on-site instruments, and how were they solved?
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Dear sea friends, I’m posting a topic here – one that I’ve often thought of before but never shared. It’s just to discuss with everyone: what difficulties do people often encounter in the maintenance of on-site instruments? Under what operating conditions do measuring instruments give inaccurate readings, or have a high failure rate and require extensive maintenance? Finally, how was it modified? Are there any remaining issues? I hope everyone will speak up actively, share their ideas, engage in in-depth discussions, and work together to improve the level of instrument use and maintenance, increase the integrity rate of these instruments, and reduce the workload on site.
What difficulties do people often encounter? The biggest difficulty is that instrument technicians do not receive the attention they deserve. Under what operating conditions do measuring instruments give inaccurate readings, or have a high failure rate and require extensive maintenance? Environmental factors: poor sealing of instruments, corrosion of instruments, environmental vibrations, and faults caused by process or equipment issues. Human factors: Failures caused by design selection, improper installation, inadequate maintenance, and human errors. Quality factor: Failures caused by problems with the quality of the instrument itself.
With those intermittent neuropathy meters, if you don’t use them, the amount of work on-site will naturally be much less. . . There’s no pattern or logic to when a madman goes crazy; no matter how skilled you are at maintenance, can you defeat a madman? . . . Hehehe. Radar crazy guy, ultrasound big-breasted crazy girl. .
These are all the reasons for problems with the instruments. Let’s discuss more specific issues to improve together.
Figuring out the cause of problems is an important way to improve technical skills
Ask more specific questions, discuss together to improve, and summarize experiences.
If the gauge is faulty, replace it; if the wire is faulty, replace it; if a component is faulty, replace it. That’s what the instrument technicians in our company do. They don’t really think deeply about instruments, and instead they get a Level 2 construction engineer certificate just to use it for formal purposes :)
Instrumentation is inherently a consumable item; if it functions properly within its shelf life, that’s already good enough. Difficult problems are most likely due to factors that weren’t taken into account during the design phase, with subsequent modifications being made later on. As a result, when the instruments are installed for measurement, it turns out that the installation does not meet the requirements, which leads to problems
The conditions specified during design differ from the actual operating conditions, so the selected table is not suitable for those conditions； The operating skills of the staff vary greatly; incorrect operations cause sudden changes in process parameters, leading to abnormal readings on the instruments ； Instrument maintenance personnel are unable to accurately diagnose the problems; they replace components blindly, carry out repairs in an improper manner, and operate outside of established guidelines, resulting in damage to the instruments or a decline in their performance ； On-site maintenance is inadequate. The above are the typical causes of instrument failures. What I would like to discuss here are some specific operational conditions in which it is difficult to take readings with instruments, or the readings are inaccurate, and the failure rate of these instruments is high. We can discuss how to resolve these issues, or those that have not yet been solved, in order to pool our ideas.
Let me give an example; please share your opinions. It’s a tower with a maximum operating temperature of 260 degrees. The bottom of the tower is stripped using superheated steam, while the pressure at the top of the tower is -0.08 MPa. The tower is made of carbon steel, and the material handled is resin. This resin tends to solidify easily, with a freezing point of 130 degrees. Additionally, the material contains CL ions, which are corrosive. There are two liquid level measurement points in the bottom of the tower, spaced 2 meters apart, each with a DN80 size. There is also a DN400 manhole in that area. The liquid level control valve with DN80 size is a jacketed valve that can be heated. I invite everyone to share their ideas and opinions. If there are any uncertainties regarding the processing conditions or other aspects, feel free to let me know, and I will get in touch and provide responses promptly! :victory: