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VOL. 12, NO. 1

T H E S E A L I N G T E C H N O L O G Y M A G A Z I N E

COVER STORY 2

INSIGHT 4

CUSTOMER 5SOLUTIONS

When David Gautreaux, Maintenance Manager atMarathon Ashland Petroleum’s (MAP) TexasRefining Division in Texas City, Texas, promised work-ers a steak dinner if the plant reached its goal for

reducing pump failures, he reckoned he’d have until sometime in2002 to make good on the offer. Instead, he ended up hosting aTexas barbecue late last October, nearly two-and-a-half years aheadof schedule.

MAP Texas City set out in February 1998 to improve the Mean-Time-Between-Failure (MTBF) of its 386 mechanically sealed pumps from

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customersolutions

Marathon Ashland Petroleum, LLC, (MAP) began a program to reduce pump failures in its seven

refineries starting with MAP’s Louisiana Refining Divisionin Garyville, Louisiana, in January 1997. Working closelywith Flowserve, MAP set a goal of increasing the MeanTime Between Failure (MTBF) of its mechanically sealedpumps from about 24 months to 58 months over a periodof five years. The company also set intermediate goals foreach of the five years.

MAP’s Texas Refining Division in Texas City, Texas,

began their program in February 1998 but fell short of itsintermediate goal of 34 months. This was because it meas-ured MTBF on a 12-month rolling average, so 1998 figuresincluded data that predated the start of the program andwould not realize the improvements made until the fol-lowing year. There was also a significant amount of timespent on administrative issues with the program, deter-mining the “bad actors” list, and increasing the awarenessof the program. As a result, only about 20 percent of its386 units were upgraded during 1998.

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24 months to 58 months by 2003. BySeptember 2000, the average MTBFstood at more than 63 months, wellahead of the five-year goal, andGautreaux owed a lot of people dinner.The quick results were due to a potentcombination of management backing,training, cooperation between opera-tions and maintenance staff, and sup-port from Flowserve’s QRC Facility inDeer Park, Texas.

“We were having repeated failures andsome very poor performers,” recallsKenny Spriggs, Rotating EquipmentEngineer at the Texas City refinery. “Wewere working on eight pumps a week; itwas just really absurd. We saw the needto improve the reliability of our pumps,and recognized the economic advan-tages in becoming an industry leader.We started doing some pump retrofits—basically, changing the bearing hous-ings, stiffening up the shafts, changingthe mechanical seals to newer technol-ogy, and utilizing Life Cycle CostAnalysis to justify each upgrade.”

Need for allianceThose efforts helped, but the resultswere spotty, and their MaintenanceDepartment knew it could use somehelp. Earlier, Flowserve’s Seal Grouphad negotiated an Alliance Programwith MAP corporate, but the deal leftparticipation up to the individualrefineries, according to Flowserve On-Site Application Engineer for much ofthe Texas City project—Tim Schewe. Inearly 1998, Jay Brister, TechnicalSupport Supervisor at the TexasRefining Division (TRD), and his asso-ciates decided it was time to buy intothe Flowserve program.

The first step was to form whatFlowserve calls an “Alliance ImprovementTeam,” a committee of MAP employeesand Flowserve representatives that meeton a regular basis to drive the program.The team began by developing perform-ance improvement strategies and bench-marks to measure their success. A keymeasurement was a 12-month rollingaverage of MTBF, and the team set annualgoals for that figure, topping off at 58months five years from the starting date.

The team decided to pull pumpsfrom service and refurbish them only asthey failed, and in the first year, Spriggsestimates, about 20 percent of themwere upgraded. “The number was fairlysmall,” he says, “but we concentrated onthe bad actors. The changes rangedfrom a mechanical seal upgrade tomore costly changes, such as bearinghousing retrofits.”

Seeing resultsDealing with the bad actors, the pumpswith the worst histories of failure, pro-vided a fairly quick boost in averageMTBF. Between January and Decemberof 1999, the rolling average rose bynearly 82 percent since 1998 data wasfactored into the 12-month average. Bythe end of the year, it was roughly dou-ble what it had been when the programbegan.

Concentrating on pumps with thepoorest performance history raisesMTBF quickly, but without a systematicapproach to maintenance, the num-bers were hard to sustain and evenharder to improve. To keep the num-bers rising, the refinery upgraded itsmechanical seal selection, improvedrepair practices, launched a regular

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S tarting in late 1998 and continuingthrough 1999, average MTBF rose

steadily, as the results of the previous year’sefforts bore fruit and still more pumps wererefurbished. By August, the refinery had sur-passed its goal for the year of 42 months, onaverage, between failures, and just twomonths later, it overtook its 2000 target of 49months. In fact, December’s figure was overthe 54-month target for 2001.

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T he average MTBF curve flattenedslightly in 2000, as the more dra-

matic opportunities for improvementdiminished. Nevertheless, MTBF con-tinued to rise, and by June, the refineryhad crossed its 2002 goal of 58months. By October, the curve hadrisen to more than 63 months—animprovement of nearly 150 percent injust two-and-a-half years.

2 0 0 1 and beyond...

Rotating Equipment Engineer Kenny Spriggs says the Texas City refinery, with

Flowserve’s assistance, is putting together aprogram to raise MTBF still higher. The nexttarget: 72 months—six full years. “There’s stilla lot we can do,” he says. Future efforts willtarget a better utilization of refinery resourcesby further defining roles in the preventive main-tenance process, evaluating existing practices,and expanding root cause failure analysis.

training program, and involvedOperations personnel in a pumpinspection and preventive maintenanceeffort aimed at catching problemsbefore they shut equipment down.

“The main thing we did was go backto the basics in our repair practices,”Spriggs says. “If you don’t have anythingto follow, you’re probably not going tocheck everything. So we developed apump repair form that has every possi-ble check you could imagine. Anotherthing we did was to convince ourOperations Department to let us havethe equipment for more than just oneor two days. Previously, if we pulled apump out in the morning, they wantedit back that afternoon.”

Taking pumps offline doesn’t com-promise production in most servicessince the refinery’s pumps are typicallydeployed in pairs. This gives the main-tenance staff the time it needs to do athorough inspection and a qualityrepair job, or even send the pump to anoutside shop for repair. “We had pumpsrunning 12 months between failureswhen they could have been running fiveyears—just because the head-to-case fitwas loose or it had a loose bearing fit,”said Spriggs.

Staying on trackProcess operators meet once a monthto review performance and discussprojects for the coming month. MAP-TRD Operations Manager, BillKepner, let Spriggs and Schewe use aportion of the meetings to present

brief training sessions aimed at spot-ting problems before they becomecritical. “We’re teaching them theproper procedures for turning on apump and shutting it down,” Spriggssays. “We train them in hydraulics—how pumps work. We’ve talked aboutcavitation, about pump operation,about running in parallel and inseries. It’s all aimed at giving theequipment owners, the operatingdepartments, a better understandingof what they need to do to receive themaximum run time on pumps.”

Spriggs gives a lot of credit to MAPmanagement, and especially DavidGautreaux, for supporting theimprovement program by encourag-ing departments to work together andspending the dollars needed to makethe program work. And the investmentis paying off. At the refinery’s celebra-tion held last October to recognize theachievement, Division Manager RichBedell told personnel that the TexasCity refinery has realized a reliabilitysavings of nearly $600K during thefirst three years of the program.Spriggs credits Flowserve for much ofthe program’s success. “The Flowserveprogram has been a tremendous bene-fit for us,” he says. “We’re saving muchmore than the cost of the program,and they’ve got Dennis Gardner, aFlowserve on-site Sales Engineer, hereto provide us with technical directionbasically at all times.”

Schewe notes that the quick improve-ment in MTBF at the refinery is fairlyexceptional. “When people ask me,‘Why were you guys so successful?,’ I tellthem that the main reason is that wehave a good, committed relationshipbetween Marathon and Flowserve,” hesays. “Many times in this business, cor-porate will approve a program but endusers will resist it, so you end up fight-ing a battle within a battle. We didn’thave those problems. We all workedtogether, and that’s probably the mainreason we succeeded.”

Now that the refinery has met andexceeded its goal, they are now movingthe bar even higher. “We’re putting aplan together now on how we think wecan get to 72 months,” Spriggs says. “Wemade some tremendous strides that wedidn’t think we were going to be able tomake, and we blew right past the goalsfor the first five years.” ●

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A strategy made possible through Flowserve’sacquisition and merger of its BWIP andDurametallic business units has enabledFlowserve’s Flow Solutions Division to sys-

tematically leverage its ability to grow its QuickResponse Center (QRC) program. Flowserve’s QRCsoffer reliability-centered maintenance for fluid han-dling equipment, such as cartridge seals, dry-runningseals, metal bellows, elastomeric bellows, split seals andgas barrier seals.

Strategically located to serve its growing customerbase, Flowserve’s network of more than 80 QRC facili-ties provide customers worldwide with immediateaccess to on-site technical consultants, replacementparts, and extensive service and repair offerings. Forthose customers who require it, Flowserve can establisha customized inventory program.

Extension of the customerResponding to a changing economy in which downsiz-ing left some customers with less in-house expertise,Flowserve’s focus has been on decentralizing its ownengineering efforts, making its QRC technical consult-ants available in the field on a 24/7/365 basis. And byproviding engineering, design and manufacturingcapabilities, the QRC functions as an extension of thecustomer’s operations.

“Over the years, there has been a retooling of theindustry,” says Paul Guilbeau, Flowserve’s DistrictManager, Beaumont, Texas. “Years ago, when a sealrequired repair, it was done by the customer at the cus-tomer’s site using the customer’s equipment. Today,plants with reduced work forces rely on us to providethat expertise. Most of our customers view our QRCs astheir factories now.”

For many customers, Flowserve guarantees a 24-houror less lead-time for standard product replacement.But for some applications, the term “standard” doesn’tapply. “One of the things that makes the QRC valuableis its CAD capabilities,” says Steve Husky, FlowserveRegional QRC Manager in Deer Park, Texas. “We havethe ability to go out to the customer’s site and measurethe pump, design the seal, manufacture the seal, put ittogether and test it in less than 72 hours,” Husky says.

Intimate knowledge The flexibility for quick turnaround plays out witheven the most unusual applications. For example,

Ed Wilcox, Senior Reliability Engineer for Conoco’sLake Charles, La., refinery and lubrication plant, wasrelieved when David Lowe, Flowserve’s sales engineer,picked up his page one Friday evening at 9:00 p.m.

“I was working on a compressor and realized thatthe faces needed to be lapped,” said Wilcox. “It wasn’t even a Flowserve seal, but we don’t have on-site capabilities to do this lathe in our plant, so Icalled David. He arranged to hot shot it over andwhen I arrived at the plant at 7 a.m. the next morn-ing the repaired seal was waiting for me.”

Wilcox says that’s the type of service that inspiredConoco to consider a global alliance program withFlowserve. The company hopes to finalize the agree-ment next year.

“We leverage our sales engineer’s time,” saysWilcox. “By intimately knowing our equipment, hepoints out opportunities that we don’t consider—heknows what we need to minimize our expense. It takesa lot of problems off me.” ●

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Problem solvedFor Flowserve’s Flow Solutions Division, Quick Response Centers represent a steadfast and dedicated response to a changing marketplace. For its customers, they represent technical solutions at the user level—at lead times unmatched in the industry.

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Flowserve’s newest QRC in Port Arthur, Texas is destined to be a hub of activity. Typical of many

major QRCs throughout the U.S., the site will houseseal technicians, seal repair technicians, machinists,inventory control personnel, sales engineers, CADdesigners, and a customer service group.

Due to open April 1, the 16,000-sq.ft. facility is “onthe doorsteps of a lot of major facilities.” says SteveHusky, Flowserve’s Gulf Coast Regional QRC Manager,Operations group.

Movin’ on up

FLOWSERVE QRC SERVICES• Seal Failure analysis• Seal Repair• Equipment analysys• Technical assistance for all rotating equipment

In days gone by, repairing a tire involved alot of work. Take the wheel off the car,take the tire off the wheel, and patch thehole in the inner tube. Remount the tire

in its original orientation to avoid throwingthe wheel balance out of whack. Reinflate itand put the wheel back on the car. Only thencould you drive away. Repairing a leak used tobe labor-intensive.

That’s no longer true. With current technol-ogy, flat tires are repaired without removingthe tire. The mechanic cleans the hole with areamer and, using a needle-like tool, inserts aplug of aramid fibers impregnated with self-vulcanizing glue. No muss, no fuss, job done. Itnow takes longer to prepare the bill and foryou to pay it than it took to perform the job.Repairing flat tires is no longer labor-intensive,thanks to engineering innovations.

In days gone by, replacing a mechanical sealon a pump also involved a lot of work. Theelectrician shut off power to the pump, themillwrights tore it down. The old seal had tobe removed from the end of the shaft and

replaced with a new one. The pump had to beremounted and reconnected. Aligning, vibra-tion testing, adjusting-the work went on andon. Replacing a failed seal used to be labor-intensive.

Today, modern seals can be replaced with-out having to dismantle the pump. The mill-wright assembles the halves of acartridge-mounted split seal around the shaftand bolts them together. No muss, no fuss.After all, there is no need to make a projectout of a simple job. It takes longer to initiateand close out the work order than it takes toperform the work. Seal replacement is nolonger labor-intensive, thanks to the innova-tions Flowserve incorporated in the new PSS IIsplit seal.

Split seals versus PSS IIThere are split seals, and there are split seals.When a production line is down because anunspared process pump is out of commissionfor seal replacement, time is of the essence.Some manufacturers of split seals take thephrase, “some assembly required,” quite liter-ally. The seal comes out of its carton as a bagof parts and pieces. A technician must keeptrack of them, while at the same time keepingthem free of dirt, grit and finger grease.

Flowserve PSS II split seals eliminate that“fumble factor.” The springs, gaskets andother small parts are already positioned pre-cisely in the cartridge halves. Contaminatedand lost parts are now problems associatedonly with obsolete seal technology.

The cost of conservatismDowntime is a financial drag on productivity.It is understandable that plants don’t spendany more time than necessary repairingpumps, especially if the application lacks aninstalled spare. When production simply mustcontinue, plants have played their hands con-servatively by avoiding mechanical seals infavor of good ol’ reliable packing, which canbe installed without dismantling equipment.For example, even without disassembly, plantsalready spend four to six hours replacing apacking on a pump and as long as two daysreplacing it on a side-entry tank agitator. It’sno surprise that conservative plants argue

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On tires, seals and paperModern technology makes them winners

insight

Contaminated and lost parts

are now problems associated only

with obsolete seal technology.

• Mounts outside the seal chamber.

• Pre-assembled, the unitized halves simplifyinstallation.

• Positioned and centered on the shaft withoutspecial tools.

• Accommodates shaft runout of 0.060 in. TIR.

• Seal pressure can be as high as 150 psi.

• High-viscosity fluids cannot separate the sealfaces.

• Springs and pins are isolated from the medium.

• Standard NPT flush tap connections.

PSS II split mechanical sealF A S T F AC T S

against dismantling a pump or agitatorto install a mechanical seal.

But, conservative plants pay a pricefor the apparent convenience thatpackings offer. According to HansBekeschus, Senior Technical SalesRepresentative for Flowserve’s FlowSolutions Division, North Bay, Ontario,Canada, operating a packing success-fully requires an injection of as muchas three to five gallons of water perminute to cool the packing and to pre-vent product from leaking out.

That extraneous water goes some-where—product dilution is part of theprice of conservatism. In some plants,that extraneous water simply adds to thecost of effluent treatment, anothercost of conservatism. Productdilution is certainly a concernin the pulp and paper indus-try. Because the typicalplant dewaters and burnsblack liquor as fuel, addingextraneous water any-where in the papermakingprocess is counterproduc-tive.

Reduced downtimeSplit mechanical seals alsoeliminate the objectionof excessive downtime-aFlowserve PSS II splitseal can be installed inan unmodified packinggland in far less timethan it takes to install atypical mechanical seal.Brad Niedert, a FlowserveSales Representative in thecompany’s Burr Ridge, Ill. officereports, “The first time I retrofitted thesplit seal, it took 11 minutes. The secondone took only eight minutes.”

Notwithstanding this genuine conven-ience, conservatives continue to defendpackings by arguing that a mechanicalseal also dilutes product with a stream offlushing water. “That is true, butinstalling the PSS II in conjunction witha Split Flow Reducing Device and a Seal-Gard flow control cuts the seal waterrate to 0.5 gpm,” added Bekeschus.“That low flow represents a 90 percentreduction in product dilution comparedto the typical packing.”

Finally, conservatism has another hid-den cost—friction—which is about sixtimes greater for packing as for amechanical seal. Horsepower is notfree, and modern plants seek to mini-mize energy waste. Even conservatives

understand that simple fact. Replacingpackings in unspared pumps and agita-tors with the PSS II split seal reducesoverall pump electrical consumption.

“The split seal is an ideal choice forseveral industries, among these pulpand paper, municipalities, power gen-eration, light chemicals and potash,”says Tom Bennett, Marketing Managerfor Flowserve’s Flow SolutionsDivision, Kalamazoo, Mich. “By lightchemicals, I mean non-hazardouschemicals. Most plants that processdangerous materials would not want touse a split seal,” he added. When

asked about the plans for the split sealproduct line, Bennett replied “In thisfirst phase of the rollout, we offer thePSS II in sizes to 4 in., but in phasetwo, we will have sizes to 6 in. as a stan-dard product and we will offer thesplit seal in larger sizes as an engi-neered product.”

For more information about TheFlowserve PSS II Split Seal, either call616 381-2650 or visit www.flowserve.com. ●

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