PRODUCTS & PRACTICES
KEEPING BELTS IN BUSINESS
Industrial services partner
Eriks estimates that incorrectly
installing and maintaining
belt drives accounts for 98% of
premature failures, leading to
downtime and lost production.
With this in mind, it has produced
some tips that aim to help
extend the life of belt drives
and pulleys, increasing their
reliability, reducing their total cost
of ownership, and minimising the
chances of downtime. Find the
tips at www.is.gd/yuweda
VSD LIQUID RING VACUUM PUMP
Atlas Copco has launched its
LRP 700-1000 VSD+ range of
intelligent liquid ring vacuum
pumps. The LRP VSD+ is said to
be a compact, high performance,
energy efficient system enclosed
in a strong, noise-containing
canopy. It is ideally suited to wet,
humid and dirty applications with
liquid and solid carryover.
SAFE PROXIMITY PROBES
Machine protection specialist
Sensonics has revealed that
its Senturion X Range of
proximity probe systems have
obtained ATEX, IECEx and PESO
certification. Compliant to the
API 670 standard, these safe
probes are said to be ideal for
non-contact measurement of
shaft vibration position, position
and speed in hazardous areas
where potentially explosive
gases or dusts are present. Typical
applications will be on many
types of critical and reciprocating
machines such as turbines,
pumps, compressors, fans, motors
and gearboxes across a wide
range of industries.
Aggreko launches emergency cold storage unit
Aggreko has launched a temporary air-cooled, low-temperature AC unit aimed at
helping cold storage warehouses immediately recover from breakdowns. Delivering
100kW of design cooling capacity at -22°C air outlet temperature, the machine is a
plug-and-play solution that is housed in a 20ft container.
EEMUA guide to mechanical
integrity updated
The Engineering Equipment
and Materials Users
Association (EEMUA) has
released Edition 2 of EEMUA
231, a guide to periodic
examination and testing of
the mechanical integrity of
plant containing hazardous
substances.
EEMUA 231 is said to
provide guidance and good
practice on safely managing
the combined hazards of
stored energy and dangerous
substances, through
maintaining the integrity
of systems and equipment
by periodic examination
and testing. The guidance
covers all onshore equipment
that provides the primary
containment boundary
to hazardous substances,
which will include pressure
vessels, relief streams,
atmospheric storage tanks,
reactors and pipework. It
will cover machines such
as pumps, agitators, valves
and compressors in so far as
they are required to maintain
primary containment.
The hazardous substances
considered include those
with the potential to cause
harm because of their
toxicity, flammability or other
form of chemical reactivity
(including explosivity).
The new edition also adds
a section on leadership,
which it calls a fundamental
aspect of managing health
and safety effectively, and
provides guidance on the
relief streams that protect
equipment or systems. The
publication has also been
given greater clarity by
combining the sections on
reporting of examinations
and post-examination
integrity assessment. There
is also a clearer demarcation
between the roles of integrity
assessor and competent
person, EEMUA says.
The guide can be found at:
www.is.gd/todeki
ABB solid-state circuit breaker concept
The concept solid-state
breaker, revealed at the
Hannover show, replaces the
traditional moving parts of
an electro-mechanical circuit
breaker with power electronics
and advanced software
algorithms that control the
power and can interrupt
extreme currents 100 times
faster than electro-mechanical
systems, ABB says.
The technology, available
next year, is intended for
renewable energy solutions,
electric transport and smart
grids. ABB says its speed
maximizes the performance
of power distribution
systems, as well as improving
safety: as there is no energy
release when the current is
interrupted, there is no risk of
arc energy exposure.
In addition, ABB claims the
system requires no service,
as there are no mechanical
components, and is many
times longer-lived.
The device was developed
in Italy at ABB’s Bergamo
Electrification business
R&D Center, and is said
to be the first of its kind
to use an insulated gatecommutated
transistor
(IGCT) semiconductor
technology. This technological
breakthrough is combined
with new embedded predictive
power management software,
protection algorithms and
higher levels of connectivity.
June 2019 www.operationsengineer.org.uk 33
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