Continue to Site

Eng-Tips is the largest engineering community on the Internet

Intelligent Work Forums for Engineering Professionals

  • Congratulations waross on being selected by the Eng-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Recent content by ronfrend

  1. ronfrend

    Dry gas seal, seal gas booster compressor failures

    That is extremely helpful but it must have been very frustrating at the time. Thanks for posting. Ron Frend http://www.predicon.net
  2. ronfrend

    Dry gas seal, seal gas booster compressor failures

    Thanks George but I think you misunderstood my post. The corrosion is not happening in the compressor itself but in the pneumatic valving that controls the pneumatic motor. This is happening on offshore oil/gas production facilities and I suspect the compressed air for the motor (they are...
  3. ronfrend

    Dry gas seal, seal gas booster compressor failures

    I'm running a compressor class and I have one delegate who has had multiple problems with booster compressors for dry gas seals. The problems seem to be mainly from the pneumatic air supply causing corrosion in the valving to the compressor pneumatic motor. I have personally not seen this but...
  4. ronfrend

    Gear pump failure against backpressure

    If a gear pump is giving reduced flow (assuming no flashing of fluid) and the gears are keyed to the shaft then the cause MUST be slippage of fluid past the teeth. That can be due to wear of the casing to tooth clearance or (and I have seen this much more often) scoring or wear of the gear end...
  5. ronfrend

    7% Ni Steeel for LNG Storage Tanks

    Does anyone know if 7% Ni steel is now approved under API620 or AME VIII for LNG storage tanks? I know this has been used in Japan and the Middle East with huge cost savings but if I'm building a tank in North America I don't know if it's allowed. Ron Frend http://www.predicon.net
  6. ronfrend

    Big axial fan vibration unbalanceable

    Hi Vibsofistio, I had a quiet new year's eve. In Houston after a long flight so missed the celebrations but no hangover on New Year's Day. Result. [bigglasses] I'm at a loss as to why this is happening. From what you say you have a high (24mm/s) 1X axially at fan speed - is this ONLY on...
  7. ronfrend

    Big axial fan vibration unbalanceable

    Hey vibsofistio, I hope you had a merry Christmas - not working too hard? Looks like you have an installation alignment issue on the taper roller bearings. The inner cup on both bearings and the inner race on one bearing are out of tolerance in the axial direction. If you have bearing...
  8. ronfrend

    Switch from API 53B to API 53C

    Hi Meshry, If the seal faces are wearing out and the hydraulic balance is not too high and the barrier fluid is a good lubricant then the carbon is too soft a grade. Go back to Flowserve and ask them for a harder wearing carbon. You then run the risk of the carbon cracking more easily but it...
  9. ronfrend

    Switch from API 53B to API 53C

    Hi Meshry. Have alook at SEALING SENSE from Oct 2013 www.fluidsealing.com/sealingsense/Oct13.pdf The paragraph on water as a barrier fluid describes the temperature limitations - it freezes at low temperatures but at higher temperatures water is a terrible lubricant and will cause seal...
  10. ronfrend

    Switch from API 53B to API 53C

    Meshry, I have some questions 1) Can I ask why you are using potable water as the barrier fluid? It is more usual to use a hydrocarbon with better lubrication properties on a crude oil pump. 2) I also assume that when you say the seal chamber pressure varies from 6 to 72 barg that this is...
  11. ronfrend

    Interpretation of orbital plots

    Good question NovaStark. I found the best way to display the most pertinent information was to use a low pass filter to show nothing higher than (about) 10X. Anything more than that and you get a lot of noise that makes it very difficult to see the true orbit. If you filter at 1X or even at...
  12. ronfrend

    Interpretation of orbital plots

    Orbits are simply a plot of the X displacement sensor output against the Y output in the time domain so effectively you are looking at the movement of the centre line of the shaft. If there is some unbalance but no other loads you would expect the shaft centreline movement to follow a circle...
  13. ronfrend

    Big axial fan vibration unbalanceable

    Are you absolutely sure this is unbalance? The reason I ask is that in almost every case of high axial vibration on a belt driven fan the cause has been misalignment. It's quite possible that the motor could be aligned to the belt but the fan may not be. My rule of thumb has always been if...
  14. ronfrend

    Cathodic protection for Inner pipe in PIP

    Thanks LittleInch, that's exactly my thoughts too but I thought I would see if anyone else had this problem. I also checked the ABS "Guide for Building and Classing Subsea Pipeline Systems" and in Chapter 3, Section9 paragraph 5.13 it states "Cathodic protection design is to be performed...
  15. ronfrend

    Cathodic protection for Inner pipe in PIP

    We have an application where DoT requires cathodic protection on the inner pipe on a 12x16 "pipe in pipe" subsea pipeline. Does anyone have any experience of this? I've talked to several suppliers and our own pipeline engineers with no luck. The only suggestion the contractor has come up with...

Part and Inventory Search