The technical sessions were chaired by Mr B. Thangavel, an eminent professional from the fields of maintenance, inspection and NDT (formerly Maintenance Chief, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd). The papers were discussed and analysed by the participants, with exchange of information and expertise among them.

On the fourth day, a workshop was conducted on Maintenance Strategy and ERP Implementation by Mr N. Venkatesan, Business Head - Consulting, Tyco-Hofincons.

Award of Gold Medal

The Gold Medal was bagged by M/s J.M. Kalra, Deputy General Manager, P. Maharaj Kumar, Assistant Manager, M.R.K. Raju & M.S. Ramana, Engineers of UltraTech Cement Limited - Andhra Pradesh Cement Works, Bhogasamudram for their paper "Reduction of repetitive stoppages - Six sigma RCM project in a cement plant".

Presentation of Trophies

The trophies presented during this Conference were as follows.

Organisation	Awarded to	Paper/s presented
Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd, East Medinipore, West Bengal	Swetketu Dey, Member Mechanical & Chandan Maiti, Member Mechanical	Solving mechanical seal- related failures through TQM
Hindalco Industries Ltd, Renukoot	Alok Mehta, Deputy Manager & Paresh Sharma, General Foreman	Innovative maintenance practice – Caustic tank level measurement of precipitation
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd, Mumbai	Sourav Kumar Chatterjee, Sr. Manager - Reliability	Revamping of wet gas compressor
Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited, Mangalore	Deepak Prabhakar, Manager, Maintenance & Arun Kulkarni, Sr. Engineer, Maintenance	Integrated reciprocating compressor monitoring
Reliance Energy Ltd, Dahanu Thermal Power Station, Dahanu	P.K. Majumdar, Vice President (DTPS) & Ashish Upadhyaya, Deputy Manager, Maintenance Planning (DTPS)	Strategic maintenance management at DTPS
Reliance Industries Ltd, Patalganga, Rasayani	N.K. Keshava Prasanna, G.M. Mechanical	Case studies on maintenance in process plants and other areas
Tata Motors Ltd, Pimpri, Pune	G.R. Gole, A.G.M. , P.D. Yerunkar, Sr. Manager & N.B. Tilak, Sr. Manager (Auto Maintenance Services)	Evaluation of maintenance management process at Tata Motors

The participants were lavish in their praise of the HIMER Conference as the only forum for practising maintenance engineers of process and engineering plants to share, discuss and enhance their maintenance expertise and for recognizing their contribution to the process industry.

Note: A few copies of the printed Conference Proceedings are available for Rs.500/- and the courier charges for the same will be approximately Rs.60/-. Please contact Mr C. Perumal, Manager HIMER; Tel: 044- 2431 1471 to 74; Email: cperumal@tycoint.com

LIST OF PAPERS WITH ABSTRACTS

S#	Company	Title	Author(s)
1.	ESSAR Steel Ltd, Hazira Gujarat	Implementing Effective On-Site Lubrication Analysis Program	P.K.S. Mani and O.V. Ramana Kumar
2.	Haldia Petrochemicals Limited, East Medinipore, West Bengal	Solving mechanical seal related failures – through TQM	Swetketu Dey and Chandan Maiti
3.	Haldia Petrochemicals Limited, East Medinipore, West Bengal	Restricting repetitive failure of Refrigeration Compressor	Tarak Malick, Snehamoy Chatterjee, Santanu Chakraborty and Prasanta Bhattacharjee
4.	Haldia Petrochemicals Limited, East Medinipore, West Bengal	Arresting impending failure of Centrifuge through Condition Monitoring	Tarak Malick, Snehamoy Chatterjee and Prasanta Bhattacharjee
5.	Hindalco Industries Limited, Renukoot	Capacitor Health Assessment – A Maintenance Perspective	P.K. Bhattacharya and Sanjay Chaudhary
6.	Hindalco Industries Limited, Renukoot	Innovative Maintenance Practice - Caustic Tank Level Measurement of Precipitation	Alok Mehta and Paresh Sharma
7.	Hindalco Industries Ltd, Renukoot , U.P.	Maximo Implementation in Hindalco	Ajit Kumar and Kamal Kishore
8.	Hindalco Industries Ltd, Renukoot, U.P.	Frequent failure of electro-magnetic flow meters In alumina refinery	Manoj Kumar Patwari and Abhinava Jain
9.	Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd – Mumbai Refinery	Vibration Analysis of Diesel Feed Pump Motor	Sourav Kumar Chatterjee
10.	Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd – Mumbai Refinery	Revamping of Wet Gas Compressor	Sourav Kumar Chatterjee
11.	J.K. Industries Ltd, Metalgalli, Mysore	Reduction in roll replacing time and cost saving – A case study in tyre-making plant	Arvind S Pikle
12.	KEC International Limited, Butibori, District Nagpur	Reducing maintenance cost of profile-cutting machine - A Case Study in TQM	Shrikant Suryakant Pensalwar
13.	Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited, Mangalore	Failures in Rotor of 26.5 MW Generators	Prashanth S Poduval and C. Ravi Kaushal
14.	Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited, Mangalore	Techniques and Tips in Electrical Maintenance	Prashanth S Poduval and C. Ravi Kaushal
15.	Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited, Mangalore	Troubleshooting of Steam Turbine - Failure of HP Extraction Valve	K. Sunil and K. Sathiyaseelan
16.	Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited, Mangalore	Integrated Reciprocating Compressor Monitoring	Deepak Prabhakar and Arun Kulkarni
17.	Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited, Mangalore	Analysing Storage Tank Settlements	M. Vinayakumar, H.R. Sharath and Deepak Katti
18.	Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited, Mangalore	Emerging Trends In Storage Tank Inspection	P. Sujith and S. Rajesh
19.	Reliance Energy Ltd, Dahanu Thermal Power Station, Dahanu	Coordinated Condition Monitoring At Dahanu Thermal Power Station	P.K. Majumdar, Prasad Rao, Mahesh Gawade and Atul Deshpande
20.	Reliance Energy Ltd, Dahanu Thermal Power Station, Dahanu	Maintenance Management through ERP	P.K. Majumdar and V.M. Shimpi
21.	Reliance Energy Ltd, Dahanu Thermal Power Station, Dahanu	Strategic Maintenance Management at DTPS	P.K. Majumdar and Ashish Upadhyaya
22.	Reliance Industries Limited, Patalganga, District Raigad	Repetitive Thrust Bearing Failures on Process Air Compressor	Manish M. Pitkar
23.	Reliance Industries Limited, Patalganga, Rasayani	Case Studies on maintenance in process plants and other areas	N.K. Keshava Prasanna
24.	Saint Gobain Glass India Limited, Sriperumbudur, Tamilnadu	Troubleshooting of repetitive failure of venturi scrubber pump	G. Rubesh Kumar and C. Kannan
25.	Tata Motors Limited, CVBU, Pimpri, Pune	Evaluation of maintenance management process at Tata Motors	G.R. Gole, Assistant General Manager, P.D. Yerunkar, Sr. Manager and N.B. Tilak, Sr. Manager (Auto Maintenance Services)
26.	Tata Motors Limited, CVBU, Pimpri, Pune	Reconditioning machine tool assets in manufacturing industries	G.R. Gole, Assistant General Manager, P.D. Yerunkar, Sr. Manager and N.B. Tilak, Sr. Manager (Auto Maintenance Services)
27.	Tata Motors Limited, CVBU, Pimpri, Pune	Multi-faceted benefits by In-house repairs of a multitude of electronic items at Tata Motors	G.R. Gole, Assistant General Manager and J.V. Pathak, Assitant Manager (Auto Maintenance Services)
28.	UltraTech Cement Limited, A.P. Cement Works, Tadipatri, Anantapur Dist.	Reduction Of Repetitive Stoppages – Six-Sigma RCM Project in a Cement Plant	P. Maharaj Kumar, Assistant Manager, M.R.K. Raju and M.S. Ramana (Engineers)

Paper 01

Case Studies on maintenance in process plants and other areas

N.K. Keshava Prasanna, G.M (Mechanical)

Reliance Industries Limited, Patalganga, Rasayani 410 220

The paper discusses the importance of the simple technique of look-listen-feel for maintenance people in process plants. Then, it elaborates some case studies on continuous improvement approach. The paper then takes up maintenance in construction machinery in our country where maintenance is neglected resulting in enormous losses and gives many case studies. Then it goes on to the human side of maintenance with many case studies. The methodology of Human Factors in Reliability Group is briefly given. Finally, case studies are given to underline the importance of leadership in maintenance.

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Paper 02

Vibration Analysis of Diesel Feed Pump Motor

Sourav Kumar Chatterjee, Senior Manager Reliability

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd - Mumbai Refinery, Mumbai 400 074

The paper discusses the vibration problems, concludes that the root cause is a poor design of the foundation and how this was solved through a formal, systematic approach.

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Paper 03

Revamping of Wet Gas Compressor

Sourav Kumar Chatterjee, Senior Manager Reliability

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd - Mumbai Refinery, Mumbai 400 074

This paper describes how one 35-year old wet gas compressor was successfully revamped to a higher capacity and efficiency.

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Paper 04

Failures in Rotor of 26.5 MW Generators

Prashanth S Poduval, Manager (Elec) & C. Ravi Kaushal, Deputy Manager (Elec)

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited, Mangalore 575 030

The paper describes the failures faced in three 26.5 MW steam driven generators by way of short circuit in rotor poles, heavy vibrations of permanent magnet generators, and short circuit in excitor armature cables, how the tests were conducted and restored to normal conditions.

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Paper 05

Techniques and Tips in Electrical Maintenance

Prashanth S Poduval, Manager (Elec) & C. Ravi Kaushal, Deputy Manager (Elec)

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited, Mangalore 575 030

The authors discuss the practical problems faced in day-to-day electrical maintenance that consume much time and share some practical tips that they have developed at their site. These deal with cable joints, junction boxes, motor bearings, remote monitoring of trip fuse status, energy savings by replacing incandescent bulbs with CFL, precise temperature control of air conditioned environments with RTDs, avoiding corrosion in streetlamp poles, avoiding flashover problems from rats/lizards and a number of other practical tips.

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Paper 06

Implementation of SAP-PM Module and Its Utilization in Business Profitability

Manish Sharma, Deputy Chief Engineer (Ammonia Plant-Mechanical)

Shriram Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd, Kota 324004

The author's company implemented SAP - Enterprise Resource Planning in 1999. Since then, the business processes have been redesigned and the work processes redefined in the company. SAP Plant Maintenance Module is used for inventory stock maintenance, spare consumption pattern reviews and budgeting for the next 5 years, ABC analysis of equipment, planning shutdown activities and the cost review on a weekly basis. Details are given in this paper.
(This paper was not presented, though included in the printed proceedings)

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Paper 07

Lessons for plant maintenance and management from Bhopal Tragedy

S. Nagarajan, DGM - Health, Safety and Environment Department

Bharath Heavy Electricals Limited, Tiruchirapalli 620014

Approximately one million people were affected. Over 27 t of methyl isocyanate and other lethal gases including hydrogen cyanide, leaked from Union Carbide's pesticide factory in the northern end of Bhopal killing over 8,000 people in its immediate aftermath, and causing multi-systemic injuries to over 500,000 people. The number of deaths has risen to over 16,000 in the subsequent years and there appears no end to the physical and mental suffering caused by exposure to the poisonous gas. This paper briefly captures on what happened on that dreadful night - 2nd to the 3rd December 1984 - step by step and emphasizes the lessons to be learnt by the plant maintenance and the management.
(This paper was not presented, though included in the printed proceedings)

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Paper 08

Troubleshooting of Steam Turbine - Failure of HP Extraction Valve

K. Sunil, Deputy Manager (Maintenance) & K. Sathiyaseelan, Sr Engineer (Maintenance)

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited, Mangalore 575 030

The steam turbine in captive power plant of MRPL experienced repeated trouble in establishing the high-pressure steam extraction. There was problem with HP steam extraction at high loads, which resulted in the equipment outage. The behavior of the machine was different during each start up. The paper presents the sequential troubleshooting and the root cause analysis of the problem.

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Paper 09

Integrated Reciprocating Compressor Monitoring

Deepak Prabhakar, Manager, Maintenance & Arun Kulkarni, Senior Engineer, Maintenance

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited, Mangalore 575030

Reciprocating compressors are difficult machines for condition monitoring due to the presence of a large number of moving parts and also the presence of noise, interfering with normal vibration signature analysis. This paper details the evolution of a comprehensive strategy for monitoring of reciprocating compressors, by using techniques like ultrasonic detection, oil analysis and performance testing in addition to the normal vibration testing. The paper presents the evolution of the strategy through case studies.

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Paper 10

Capacitor Health Assessment - A Maintenance Perspective

P.K. Bhattacharya, Deputy Manager (Electrical) & Sanjay Chaudhary, Engineer (Electrical)

Hindalco Industries Limited, Renukoot 231217

Capacitors in power factor improvement banks, when used in a harmonic environment, become prone to failure due to increased losses and stresses on the dielectric. This paper is based on the experiments conducted by the authors for health assessment and measurement of losses in power factor improvement capacitor banks.

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Paper 11

Innovative Maintenance Practice - Caustic Tank Level Measurement of Precipitation

Alok Mehta, Deputy Manager & Paresh Sharma, General Foreman

Alumina Instrumentation Maintenance

Hindalco Industries Limited, Renukoot 231217

In alumina refinery, a caustic tank is used for storing caustic soda (Na2CO3) at 95ºC. It is utilized for chemical cleaning of pregnant liquor lines & tanks. The ultrasonic level sensor used for level measurement used to give false signal due to fumes or foam formation in the tank. The authors describe the problem and how it was solved using DP transmitter but with an in-house developed diaphragm assembly filled with oil in between.

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Paper 12

Reduction in roll replacing time and cost saving - A case study in tyre-making plant

Arvind S Pikle, Deputy Manager - Mechanical

J.K. Industries Ltd, Metalgalli, Mysore 570016

The author describes how considerable cost savings were effected in roll-changing operation in a calendering machine in his tyre making plant. Teamwork and motivation as well as applying collective thinking and working were responsible for this gain.

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Paper 13

Failure analysis of process gas heater tubes - Case study in a sponge iron plant

Omprakash S. Kudachi, Manager (Mechanical)

Vikram Ispat (A unit of Grasim Industries Ltd), Dist. Raigad 402202

Vikram Ispat is the world's first gas based sponge iron plant to produce both HBI & DRI from the same reactor successfully. The main function of process gas heater in this plant is to raise the reducing gas temperature from 390 to 930°C. After the plant operation for a couple of years, the wall thickness of the tubes & fittings was found reduced drastically during condition monitoring (from 19 to 4 mm for example) and caused frequent failure and stoppage of the plant. The paper provides the analysis conducted to enable proper identification of the root cause and remedial action. The basic problem is attributed to metal dusting, a catastrophic carbonization. The paper identifies the main parameters that need to be taken into account and concludes that based on the studies, and trial use of different alloys, specifications and data sheet of process gas heater have been modified, resulting in the increased life of tubes and fittings from 2 to 3 years to 5 to 6 years.
(This paper was not presented, though included in the printed proceedings)

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Paper 14

Repetitive Thrust Bearing Failures on Process Air Compressor

Manish M. Pitkar, Sr Manager - C.E.S. (Mechanical)

Reliance Industries Limited, Patalganga, District Raigad 410220

A turbine-driven process air compressor (8.9 MW) in PTA Plant had repetitive failures of active side thrust bearing, each failure costing around Rs.4 million. This paper describes how the repetitive failure was eliminated

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Paper 15

Maximo Implementation in Hindalco

Ajit Kumar, Manager (Alumina IM) & Kamal Kishore, Deputy Manager (Boiler and Co-Gen IM)

Hindalco Industries Ltd, Renukoot 231217

Hindalco, comprising of an integrated aluminium manufacturing setup at Renukoot, a captive power plant of 750 MW at Renusagar and a foil and wheel plant at Silvassa, started in 2002 implementing Maximo for maintenance and Oracle for all other functions. The team had around 20 members representing all plants, sites and functions. The aim was to bring all three sites and plants on a common platform and the project was completed in 18 months. The project went on live on Oct. 2003. The paper describes the steps involved and the results

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Paper 16

Coordinated Condition Monitoring At Dahanu Thermal Power Station

P.K. Majumdar, Vice President (DTPS), Prasad Rao, Chief Engineer (O & M), Mahesh

Gawade, Additional Manager (Maintenance Planning) & Atul Deshpande, Deputy Manager

(Condition Monitoring Cell)

Reliance Energy Ltd, Dahanu Thermal Power Station, Dahanu 401608

Dahanu Thermal Power Station, with two units of 250 MW each, has strategically adopted coordinated condition monitoring as one of the key maintenance management practices. This paper describes the best practice initiatives at DTPS. Various techniques and the implementation methodologies have been discussed. This also shares a success story wherein imminent bearing failure of HT auxiliary ID fan was diagnosed, using the coordinated condition monitoring techniques such as wear debris, noise, vibration spectrum analysis and chemical analysis.

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Paper 17

Maintenance Management through ERP

P.K. Majumdar, Vice President (DTPS) & V.M. Shimpi, Additional Manager (CTS & IT)

Reliance Energy Ltd, Dahanu Thermal Power Station, Dahanu 401608

It is an utmost requirement and need of the time to have not only Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) but also an integrated CMMS system with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or ERP-based maintenance management system in any industry. This paper brings out how the requirements of modern maintenance management system may be effectively handled by computerization integrated through ERP. It also focuses on how the synergy of best practices of ERP and maintenance function goes together. The future road map of KPA/KRA Maintenance Analysis, 'One-Step ahead-Beyond CMMS' is briefly explained

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Paper 18

Strategic Maintenance Management at DTPS

P.K. Majumdar, Vice President (DTPS) & Ashish Upadhyaya, Deputy Manager,

Maintenance Planning, DTPS

Reliance Energy Ltd, Dahanu Thermal Power Station, Dahanu 401608

One of the key contributors for the success of DTPS as one of the top power plants of the world is the continuously improving operation and maintenance practice. The present stage of maintenance management practices has been evolved over a period of ten years of striving towards excellence. This paper showcases the typical organization of maintenance setup at DTPS and the maintenance philosophy being followed. The paper also deliberates on Equipment Criticality Analysis, Risk Assessment and FMEA that identify critical and risk prone equipments from others, and suggest extensive monitoring measures to save the plant from unforeseen failures. The key performance indicators as well as human aspects are discussed.

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Paper 19

Reducing maintenance cost of profile-cutting machine - A Case Study in TQM

Shrikant Suryakant Pensalwar, Senior Engineer- Plant Engineering Department

KEC International Limited, Butibori 441108 District Nagpur

KEC, a part of RPG group, manufactures electric overhead transmission towers for global customers and has an advanced manufacturing plant at Butibori since 1996. As part of its quality initiatives, various TQM projects are being undertaken. This paper describes how a team reduced the maintenance cost of a profile-cutting machine by reducing the breakdown from 48.88 % to below 1.5% through application of TQM.

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Paper 20

Implementing an effective On-Site lubrication analysis programme

P.K.S. Mani, General Manager & O.V. Ramana Kumar, Deputy Manager

Essar Steel Ltd, Hazira 394 270 Gujarat

This paper describes on-site lubrication analysis programme in a 2.4 million ton modern steel plant where numerous applications like hydraulic systems, centralised lube systems and gearboxes are present. A case study is discussed on a centralised lubrication system where a major problem was detected through oil analysis.

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Paper 21

Troubleshooting of repetitive failure of venturi scrubber pump

G. Rubesh Kumar & C. Kannan

Team Members - TS, Mechanical

Saint-Gobain Glass India Limited, Sriperumbudur, 602 105 Tamilnadu

This paper describes how the repetitive leaking gland pack of venturi scrubber pump was investigated with vibration monitoring and the problem solved after tracing the root cause to the warped motor base frame

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Paper 22

Improving OEE in high capacity press in refractory bricks manufacture

Subrat Kumar Mohapatra, Maintenance Officer

Tata Refractories Limited, Belpahar 768218 Orissa

An atomized oil lubricant spraying is done on the dies that press the refractory bricks in high capacity presses. The productivity of the press was seriously hampered due to problems in the spraying system. This paper describes an innovative PLC controlled die spraying system whereby the availability and overall equipment effectiveness were increased.
(This paper was not presented, though included in the printed proceedings)

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Paper 23

Reduction of repetitive stoppages - Six-Sigma RCM project in a cement plant

J.M. Kalra, DGM, P. Maharaj Kumar, Assistant Manager, M.R.K Raju, Engineer & M.S. Ramana, Engineer

UltraTech Cement Limited - Andhra Pradesh Cement, Bhogasamudram 515415

UltraTech APCW has the most modern technology and energy efficient-equipment where packers are used for filling different grades and brands of the cement in bags of 50 kg each; these are then loaded onto wagon/trucks for dispatch. Packing and loading of cement bags of 2600 tons have to be done within 8 hours for wagons; within 2 hours for the trucks. This paper describes in detail how a project on reduction in repetitive stoppages started in Apr.2004 resulted in reducing the repetitive stoppages from the base level by 50%. The standard approach of RCM was followed along with application of tools such as SIPOC, Tree Diagram, Pareto, Why-Why, Cause and Effect investigation, FMEA and Chi-Square Test.

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Paper 24

Improving reliability of static equipment of ammonia and urea plants

U.N. Mishra, Senior Manager, Mechanical & Manish Sharma, Assistant Manager, Mechanical

Chambal Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd, Gadepan 325208, Dt. Kota, Rajasthan

The paper describes how at CFCL the reliability of critical static equipment were increased by using materials of improved metallurgy coupled with indigenization to optimize costs. The reformed gas boiler and urea stripper in the ammonia and urea plants are considered critical to plant operations. This paper deals with the metal dusting problem in RG boiler ferrules that led to tube failure, and the by-pass valve failure. The complete ferrules were replaced with a better material and the by-pass valve assembly with similar material, indigenously. The problem of bypassing of carbamate solution between ferrule and tube ends in urea stripper was solved by replacing the imported grid with indigenously manufactured one. (This paper was not presented, though included in the printed proceedings)

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Paper 25

Reliability Centred Maintenance - An approach to medium sized chemical industry

Utpal Kachchhi, Manager-Plant Engineering

Bayer CropScience Limited, Ankleshwar 393 002 Gujarat

The plant utilization in medium sized chemical industries is enhanced by manufacturing of different products with the same installed facility. However, this adds to the complexity of operations and equipment operating parameters, especially since the raw materials are usually costly and hazardous. The purpose of this paper is to equip the plant engineer with some of the reliability engineering principles by which the complexity can virtually become simplicity. The paper presents various aspects of reliability engineering and presents some actual data. (This paper was not presented, though included in the printed proceedings)

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Paper 26

Solving mechanical seal related failures - through TQM

Swetketu Dey, Member Mechanical & Chandan Maiti, Member Mechanical

Haldia Petrochemicals Limited, East Medinipore 721602 West Bengal

This paper emphasizes that improving the skill of people or building technical strength is important, but it is far more important for the management to promote a sense of belongingness among its the rank and file to scale new heights. The paper describes how the total quality initiative taken by HPL has influenced the people to solve a perennial problem of seal failure and save substantial costs for them.

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Paper 27

Restricting repetitive failure of refrigeration compressor and

Arresting impending failure of centrifuge through Condition Monitoring

Tarak Malick & Prasanta Bhattacharjee Snehamoy Chatterjee & Santanu Chakraborty

Sr. Engineers (Inspection and PDM) Engineers (Inspection and PDM)

Haldia Petrochemicals Limited, East Medinipore, West Bengal 721602

The paper looks at two case studies where logical steps have been taken to arrive at the root cause with supporting condition monitoring techniques. The authors contend that though not much of diagnostic engineering has been applied in both cases, these are interesting cases of reliability enhancement of such equipment in petrochemical sector. The first case pertains to a screw compressor and the second one is a centrifuge.

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Paper 28

Frequent failure of electro-magnetic flow meters in alumina refinery

Manoj Kumar Patwari, Dy. Manager & Abhinava Jain General Foreman

(Alumina Instrumentation)

Hindalco Industries Ltd, Renukoot 231217, U.P.

This paper highlights the efforts made to reduce frequent failures in imported electro-magnetic flow meters installed for bauxite-slurry/hydrate-slurry/caustic liquor flow-application. The modification resulted in substantial savings to the company and was also incorporated by the OEM in their future supplies.

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Paper 29

Evaluation of maintenance management process at Tata Motors

G.R. Gole, A.G.M., P.D. Yerunkar, Sr. Manager & N.B. Tilak, Sr. Manager

(Auto Maintenance Services)

Tata Motors Limited, CVBU, Pimpri, Pune 411018

To maintain over 5000 diverse machines and equipment with complex electrical, mechanical, and electronic systems in a large complex of various factories, which manufacture aggregates for making automobiles, the maintenance management has to be to the latest technology. Given below is a summary of the authors' presentation in the Conference on their strategy, methodology, and deployment of maintenance practices that make TATA Motors as a successful leader in automobile industry.

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Paper 30

Reconditioning machine tool assets in manufacturing industries

G.R. Gole, A.G.M., P.D. Yerunkar, Sr. Manager & N.B. Tilak, Sr. Manager

(Auto Maintenance Services)

Tata Motors Limited, CVBU, Pimpri, Pune 411018

Tata Motors, a large manufacturing unit with more than 5000 machines and equipment, recondition their assets to near-new condition, which can be called a systemized approach to planned maintenance. This helped them in one case to increase their Overall Equipment Effectiveness from 64 to 82% and decrease the machine downtime from 18 to 2%. This paper is a summary of their presentation with around 70 photos to the Conference.

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Paper 31

Emerging trends in storage tank inspection

P. Sujith, Manager-Inspection & S. Rajesh, Deputy Manager - Inspection

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited, Mangalore 575 030

Maintenance and inspection of hydrocarbon storage tanks is a costly and time consuming exercise and the aim of any maintenance plan would be to limit the outage time to the bare minimum. This paper describes how acoustic emission testing is used to gauge the condition of the tank before opening to enable proper planning before tank outage. Automated inspection techniques like low frequency electromagnetic testing or magnetic flux leakage also used to minimize the inspection effort. The paper summarises a field experience of using a combination of acoustic emission testing and low frequency electromagnetic testing in a crude oil storage tank.

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Paper 32

Analysing storage tank settlements

M. Vinayakumar, DGM Engr, H.R. Sharath, Sr. Engr-Inspection & Deepak Katti, Sr. Engr - Design

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited, Mangalore 575 030

Storage tanks, when filled, will uniformly load the foundation beneath the tank. However, the edge of the tank under the shell has increased load. Any failure due to the settlement is a serious problem for surrounding property and life. Hence, monitoring programs of tank settlement are initiated during the construction and continued during the hydrostatic testing and operations. Often, different points on the circumference of the tank will settle at different rates, resulting in an out of plane settlement of tank bottom plates. Settlement reading of the tank shell is noted down from a set of locations fixed around the circumference of the tank. These settlement values are extrapolated to form a best-fit curve and a plane of settlement. Acceptability of settlement can be derived from the extent of deviation of actual settlements from the calculated plane of settlement. This paper presents a simple approach to determine the best-fit curve using a standard spreadsheet. An actual study is cited presenting the application of theoretical basis for determining the best-fit curve to a settled tank bottom.

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