Hydrocarbon Processing - August 2022 - 80

Maintenance
and Reliability
H. BLOCH, Reliability/Equipment Editor,
Montgomery, Texas
Creating opportunities for future
fluid machinery experts
The state of understanding science
and facts on one side and distinguishing
these from anecdotes
and often
far-fetched opinions on the other side
should be concerning to us. Institutions
of higher learning can be disinclined to
teach needed, applicable or actionable
knowledge. While there have been discussions
about apprenticeship training,
we have also heard selfish comments to
the contrary. Trained technical professionals
feared that they would be hired
away by companies that themselves do
not invest in training. As a result of this
prevailing mindset, little or nothing is
done. Moreover, overdependence on the
Internet causes some not to learn how to
connect the dots and too often miss seeing
matters in the proper context.
In need of more lubrication knowledge.
Decades ago, it became evident
that lubrication issues in process industries
caused disproportionate financial
underperformance. Experts knew that
the industry could capture large benefits
from reliability improvements with a
little more forethought. At that time, an
engineer approached one of the department
heads at a major university and
suggested they should add an undergraduate
course in lubrication technology.
The department head's answer was
swift. He said his university would become
a laughingstock for teaching how
to use an oil can or a grease gun to refill
bearing housings, and he would neither
support nor even mention such a
recommendation to his fellow educators.
In the roughly 30 yr since floating
his recommendation, the engineer
dealt with ever-increasing lubrication
matters. He had ample opportunities
to contribute to books on lubrication
technology and testify as an expert witness
on lubrication-related mistakes in
U.S. courts and International Courts
of Arbitration in Washington, DC and
London, UK. He reaffirmed that lubrication
knowledge adds more value than
the credit it receives.
FIG. 1. Pump craftsmen at work in Cressier,
Switzerland.
80 AUGUST 2022 | HydrocarbonProcessing.com
Consider imitating the success of
others. We have lived long enough to
see how reluctant people in authority
often are to allow others to comment
on matters before deciding on a course
of action that may (or may not) be the
best. At times, we could learn much
from the success of others. In many European
countries where craft training is
part of the overall educational system,
apprentice electricians, mechanics or
millwrights must spend 20% of their
working hours as apprentices in trade
schools. This is typically 8 hr/wk, usually
mandated by a country's Education
Ministry. This schooling covers the relevant
theories and sciences underlying
their respective crafts. While the
leading U.S. engineering colleges often
prescribe curricula for mechanical engineering
studies, including a hands-on
machine shop course, there is now also
a need for trained technicians. The 20%
rule or creating slots in community colleges,
combined with internships, are
suggested solutions. In short, there does
not seem to be any downside to simply
imitating one of the approaches taken
by other successful industrial societies.
A recipe for success. As an example of
a recipe for success, we address the possibilities
for the U.S. Gulf Coast. Perhaps,
this would point to a university located
somewhere between Brownsville, Texas
and Mobile, Alabama; the institution
might consider offering a Bachelor of
Science degree in fluid machinery engineering.
Top-tier companies that repair
and upgrade process pumps, dynamic
and positive displacement gas compressors
and various types of turbines for
customers worldwide would arrange
internships. The companies that would
make room for these internships might
make it one of its priorities to point out
the best available equipment-related
components and maintenance avoidance
strategies. These would include
amendments to the American Petroleum
Institute equipment standards and foundation
and piping recommendations
practiced by a few true best-in-class
fluid machinery user companies. Interns
would learn that customers not ready to
authorize certain feasible upgrades on a
particular repair would be hard-pressed
not to authorize these on one of the repair
events that will likely follow (FIG. 1).
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