Bolting Services during Shutdown

Introduction

A couple of loose bolts and or a rusty and blocked nut can stop the production temporarily and sometimes may lead to an unscheduled shutdown which eventually impacts the production schedules and deliverables. However, right bolting services ensure safe, reliable, and efficient operation of the plant with regular or periodic maintenance.

Increasingly rigorous quality and reliability requirements and developments in bolt materials and gasket types require accurate, precalculated tensioning of the bolted connections. To achieve this, the latest bolting tools are used for onsite services like hydraulic bolt tensioning and torquing, nut splitting, and flange facing, beveling, and alignment.



1. Services during Shutdown

  A. Mechanical Maintenance Services

  • Mounting and dismounting

If machines are to function well over extended periods, it is important to use the correct mounting methods. Correct installation not only means good product quality but often a reduction in energy consumption as well. Taking bearing as an example, Mounting is one of the critical and crucial stages of the bearing’s life cycle. If the bearing is not installed properly using the correct method and Installation tools, the bearing’s service life will be reduced. It is proven that around 15% of all premature bearing failures are a result of poor fitting or using incorrect mounting techniques

  • Precision alignment

There are many factors to consider for optimum functionality and long service life for bearings, couplings, and other machine elements. A key factor is machinery alignment. When machines are not accurately aligned, the result is often shaft misalignment which can lead to unscheduled service shutdowns.

  • Balancing

In rotating equipment, unbalance occurs when the centre of gravity does not correspond with the centre of mass. This leads to developing unbalance forces that quickly increase with revolutions and develop stresses and vibration in equipment, which in turn affects life, consumes more energy, and can cause problems for attachment points and electrical installations. If not promptly corrected, an unbalanced piece of equipment can quickly result in safety risks, wear, production loss, eventually quality problems of the product being manufactured.

B. High-Pressure Hydro Blast Cleaning Services

In the field of high-pressure cleaning by water, hand-operated equipment like Spraying guns as well as mechanical equipment like rotating washes, drilling and lance equipment, and sewerage cleaning equipment is used. Employing this equipment, heat exchangers, condensers, reactors, storage tanks, furnaces, transport pipelines, sewage systems, towers, vessels, etc. clean as part of onsite services, efficiently.

C. Bolting Services

As Conventional methods of torque tightening of large bolts and nuts are inefficient and often proven as dangerous and almost 90% of the efforts required to tighten a bolt is lost in overcoming the friction itself, Hydraulic Tensioning is the most suitable and available method to achieve accurate bolt loading in safety-critical joints.

Hydraulic tensioning tools can be positioned quickly and easily around the face of the flange. Also, this type of tension is relatively much faster than traditional methods, requires less manpower, and delivers superior results at a low cost.

To obtain the most accurate uniform compression of the joint, the Hydraulic tensioners are applied with an arrangement such that all the bolts can be simultaneously tensioned. But all applications may not allow for simultaneous tensioning of all bolts due to the space limitations, 50% of the bolts are tensioned simultaneously first and the procedure repeats for the remaining 50% of bolts. Thus, 100% tensioning is achieved where tensioners are attached to bolts alternatively on each side of the flange.

2. Types of Maintenance

All of the services discussed in the previous section can be deployed based on the type of maintenance. There are different types of maintenance carried out in the industry which are mainly -

  • Preventive Maintenance - Maintenance carried out at predetermined intervals or according to prescribed criteria, aimed at reducing the failure of risk or performance degradation of the equipment.
  • Corrective Maintenance - Maintenance is carried out following detection of  variance and aimed at restoring normal operating conditions

3. Types of bolting services

  • Controlled bolting -
  • Bolt tightening for accurate joints by torque wrenches
  • Bolt tensioning with hydraulic tensioners for leak-proof joints
  • Flange Joint Management – Flange facing and beveling
  • Cold cutting - Refers to the cutting pipe without the use of heat
  • Hot bolting - is the process of removing, replacing, and re-tightening bolts on live piping and equipment.

4. Industries which needs bolting services

Industries which needs onsite services like bolting services during the shutdown are -

  • Aerospace – Repair of Landing gear and engine overhauling
  • Oil & Gas – Flange Joint repairs for leakproof
  • Petrochemical – Flange joints in main lines
  • Heavy Machinery – for the foundation of the machinery
  • Shipyards – Assembly and disassembly of the auxiliary shaft to the main shaft
  • Windmill - Installing and decommissioning of wind turbines

Content Source :- ABSGroup

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