Equipment life extension involves upgrades

摘要

Every plant wants to get more service life from site machinery. Since about 1990, quite a number of start-up consulting companies have formed to advise clients on equipment life extension. These companies use different approaches: some apply large-scale, computer-based statistical methods, while others blend traditional estimates with risk-based analysis. All of these approaches have merit, but none of them can provide all of the answers with high precision. The key ingredients of any useful endeavor include reviewing the asset's past failure history, examining nondestructive testing (NDT) data, and upgrading the weakest link.