Bloch, Heinz P.
Heinz P. Bloch resides in Montgomery, Texas. He retired as Exxon Chemical’s Regional Machinery Specialist for the U.S. and has authored or co-written more than 780 publications, among them 23 comprehensive books on practical machinery management, failure analysis, failure avoidance, compressors, steam turbines, pumps, oil mist lubrication and optimized lubrication for industry. Mr. Bloch holds BS and MS degrees (cum laude) in mechanical engineering from the Newark College of Engineering (NCE). He is one of 10 inaugural inductees into NCE’s Hall of Fame, which honors its most distinguished alumni.
HP Reliability: Notes from a consulting assignment
 "Machine failed; how do we fix it?" As a consulting engineer, one often gets this type of request. Unfortunately, the client sometimes has neither the time nor the interest to elicit the consult..
HP Reliability: Consider screw compressors with a reliability focus
 In 2007, an engineer at a mid-western US refinery commented on flooded screw compressors. He said, "Every industrial service I have seen has had issues with oil contamination of the flood oil in..
HP Reliability: More than procedures are needed to avoid incidents
Here is the typical scenario: An explosion rips through a refinery (and when an explosion happens, the heat is on). As usual, the organization reacts swiftly. The customary failed assets remediation t..
HP Reliability: Thinking independently
Our October 2007 column touched on the subject of tracking mean-time-between-failures (MTBFs) of general-purpose machinery. It was noted that, to achieve high MTBF, some unit managers used frequent in..
HP Reliability: Vent gas compressor selection
Energy conservation is of ever-increasing importance to process plants from the smallest to the largest. Gas streams that were flared a decade ago are now often recompressed and recycled back to the ..
HP Reliability: Specifications for special-purpose machinery
It is not the purpose nor is it within the scope of this column to give detailed field erection and installation specifications for the many rotating machines found in modern process plants. However, ..
Eliminate risky trends in reliability management
Follow these guidelines to improve process safety and reduce maintenance costs
HP Reliability: Update your grease compatibility know-how
We haven't made a survey as to which of the hundreds of "HPIn Reliability" columns published each month over a span of more than 17 years merit being updated. Some are "evergreen," but a few might be ..
Performance benchmarking update: expectations and reality
Here's how first-quartile companies optimize maintenance and improve reliability
HP Reliability: Justification for machine condition monitoring
Continuous operational condition monitoring implies that machine condition data are collected and evaluated in real time. Of special interest here are data that could rapidly change and are tell-tale ..
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