Environment & Safety Gas Processing/LNG Maintenance & Reliability Petrochemicals Process Control Process Optimization Project Management Refining

Bloch, Heinz P.

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff, Montgomery, Texas

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: How reliability improvements save money

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

Equipment manufacturers and design contractors are often slow to adopt reliability upgrade and energy-conservation components in their standard offers. Fearful that buyers are making selections on low..

HP Reliability: HPIn Reliability

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

Deviations add up to become exponential failure risks

HP Reliability: When is a good practice a bad practice

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

For years, it has been our contention that root-cause failure analysis (RCFA) is a skill that must be taught, absorbed and consistently practiced. We certainly concur with the CEO of an RCFA training ..

HP Reliability: Win or lose – it's the customer's choice

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

This January marks the 30th anniversary of the article on eliminating cooling water from general-purpose pumps and drivers.1 The article documented why, in the early and mid-1970s, many of the world's..

HP Reliability: Avoid three-dimensional compressor impeller failures

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

 Fig. 1     Three-dimensional impeller with integral blading being machined (Source: Babcock-Borsig, Berlin, Germany Cl..

HP Reliability: Vibration limits for gas turbines

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

For the past 16 years, this monthly column has often dealt with vibration issues. While many of these would best be addressed in the context of data collected and operational experience with a particu..

HP Reliability: Upgrading your fan bearings

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

This column has friends and detractors. Our detractors buy (or make) widget model 1952 and hate it when we point out that the recently developed widget model 2006 is better than the previously used st..

Apply proven machinery problem-solving strategies *

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

Here's a summary of the approach used by competent machinery engineers

HP Reliability: Basis for bearing protector compliance

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

IEEE 841-2001 is a self-certification standard for electric motors used in the petrochemical and chemical industries. It's worth knowing a bit more about it when considering the mechanical aspects of ..

HP Reliability: Statistics to think about

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Bloch, Heinz P.

Some statistics are misleading and some are highly accurate. Here are a few that you may want to ponder. Pump statistics for 2004. For 2004, the US Census Bureau reported 8,535,920 centrifugal pumps s..