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Pump Inspection and Factory Acceptance Test

The opportunity to witness Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) of pumps came to me. About a week ago I visited our vendor’s factory at Industrial zone in Pulogadung, Indonesia. Our plan was to witness the performance of three different pumps.

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Our pumps were not API pumps therefore the performance test procedure was quite simple and quick. The performance test of one pump took less than 30 minutes. However, the preparation, such as mobilization of pump, installation, make sure there’s no leak in the pipe, took longer time than the test itself.

There are several parameters to be checked during test, suction head, discharge head, rpm, power, voltage, bearing temperature, vibration level, and noise level. The pumps were operated under different flow rate, such as 0%, 25%, 50%, 100%, and 120% capacity, and at minimum flow. Those parameters were checked at different flow condition.

After we got the actual parameters, we plotted on the graphs. Then we compare the actual performance with design performance. The deviation shall not more than 6%.

 

Water Chiller Inspection: My First Experience

Today, the project manager our EPC project asked me to participate in water chiller inspection in Cileungsi, Bogor, Indonesia. It was my first time. So, I felt a bit excited as well as confused. On that inspection, my role was to inspect the equipment and the technical aspects. I actually did not have any idea about the equipment, except the function.

Simply, we can say water chiller is a refrigeration device. It is used to cool a process fluid. A chiller will use either a vapor compression or absorption cycle to cool.

Type of Industrial Chiller

Figure blow shows type of industrial chiller.

 

Component of Chiller

The basic component of chiller are compressor, evaporator, condenser, and thermostatic expansion valve.

Wastewater Treatment System

A few weeks ago I got a discussion about wastewater treatment system in our proposed plant. I discussed with one of my colleague. He said, “Let the nature works! Let it process the wastewater by itself”. It sounds weird at the first time. But he’s right and he’s a bit wrong.

He’s right because the natural water in streams, rivers, lakes, and reservoir have a natural waste assimilative capacity to remove solids, organic matter, even toxic chemicals in wastewater. He’s a bit wrong because the process takes a really long time. That’s why we need wastewater treatment system to make it quick (read more in Water and Wastewater Calculation Manual). Read More

Hydrostatic Test for Boiler

I just got an opportunity to witness hydrostatic test for boilers in my recent EPC project. Hydrostatic test is the most common procedure used to qualify newly manufactured pressure pressure. The purpose is to make sure here is no leak in the boiler.

The procedure was quite simple yet important. Pressure parts shall be subjected to a hydrostatic test pressure which at every point is at least equal to:

1.5 times the MAWP (Maximum Allowable Working Pressure) for ASME section I code.

1.3 times the MAWP for ASME section VIII Div. I code

(The MAWP may be assumed to be the same as the design pressure)

The design pressure of my boilers is 10 barg. When this test applied, the QC engineer increased the pressure of boiler to 10 barg and hold it for 15 minutes. They checked visually the internal of boiler if there’s a leak. Unfortunately, there’s no digital recorder available to record the pressure of boiler during the test. So, we needed to check by our naked eyes the pressure gauge.

After 15 minutes, the increased the pressure to 15 barg at hold it for an hour. After that, they decreased the pressure to 10 barg again, hold it for 15 minutes, then decreased again to 1 barg. The inspection was done visually.