Skip to content

Plant problem

Equipment is not working properly, or keeps failing

When one item fails repeatedly, the item is usually reporting something about the system it sits in.

Typically arises in

  • STP
  • ETP
  • WTP
  • RO
  • ZLD
Observation record
Reported
in the words of the person at the plant
5 signs
that often come with it
4 lines
of enquiry to check on site
Cause
not assumed from the symptom

Symptoms, not causes

You may also be seeing

  • The same component fails again after replacement
  • Equipment never reached its rated duty, even when new
  • Seals, bearings or impellers wear far faster than expected
  • Instruments read implausibly, or are ignored by operators
  • Spares consumption is treated as a normal running cost

What helps, if you have it

  • Failure and replacement history for the item
  • Nameplate data and, where available, the original selection basis
  • Photographs of the failed components

None of it is required to start.

What an investigation looks at.

Lines of enquiry, not conclusions. Which of them matters is decided at the plant, by evidence.

Line of enquiry01

Duty against selection

  • Real operating point against the point the equipment was selected for
  • Whether the selection accounted for solids, abrasives, temperature and chemistry
  • Materials of construction against the actual effluent

Line of enquiry02

Installation and operation

  • Alignment, support, suction conditions and cavitation
  • Dry running, frequent starts, and protection settings
  • Control philosophy and whether it matches how the plant is really run

Line of enquiry03

Maintenance

  • Access for maintenance, and whether it is realistically achievable
  • Maintenance regime as documented against maintenance as performed

Line of enquiry04

The process around it

  • Whether an upstream stage is delivering conditions the equipment cannot survive
  • Whether the failure is a component defect or a system consequence
How an investigation runs, step by step

Talk to an Expert

Show us this on your plant.

This problem is carried across to the form as your starting point. You can change it there.

Talk to an Expert

A specialist calls you and tells you the right next step and its cost.

Not quite it?

Last updated