How often should a cryogenic liquid pump in oxygen generation equipment be disassembled for inspection?
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It has now been in operation for 18,000 hours, and all parameters are normal. Is it necessary to carry out regular maintenance? How often is maintenance typically done in this industry? The management now requires preventive maintenance, so I’d like to know how often others conduct maintenance.
There should be industry standards; equipment needs to be maintained after it has been in operation for a certain period of time. Of course, those who are more knowledgeable should answer this question: lol
If the pump head leaks and cannot be repaired, the pump should be shut down; procedures should be followed to replace it with a repaired spare pump head.
The mechanical transmission components can remain uninspected for several years, while the oil seals at the crosshead need to be replaced regularly, usually every 2-3 years. However, the pump head requires more frequent maintenance; for example, the internal seals of liquid oxygen pumps need to be replaced around once a year.
It is usually for fault repair; the liquid oxygen pumps in our company normally operate for 3 to 5 years
It’s unclear in domestic settings, but abroad there is usually a Reliability Engineer who, based on the equipment’s load, process conditions and parameters, as well as the local operating environment, redefines the maintenance intervals for each unit. Additionally, they determine the monitoring points for preventive maintenance and the standards for shutdowns for maintenance, taking into account the failure modes of those units. In other words, whether the unit needs to be disassembled for maintenance is determined based on the values of the key monitoring parameters (real-time parameters and periodically monitored parameters); if all monitoring parameters are within normal ranges, there is no need to disassemble the unit for maintenance. Of course, determining which specific parameters to test requires experience, expertise, and responsibility.