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: Organizing for continuous improvement
Our respected colleague and coauthor of a series of books on machinery reliability improvement, Fred Geitner, recently took a look at North American refineries. He wanted to see how they are typically..
HP Reliability: Tackling your seal problems
A recent pump reliability improvement issue might serve as a model for tackling sealing issues in modern refineries. This one concerns crude vacuum bottoms pumps and explains a North American refinery..
HP Reliability: Vibration limits: Is there a consensus?
An experienced reliability manager recently asked our opinion on the subject of turbomachinery vibration. He and his staff had been discussing the vibratory behavior and applicable settings on one of ..
HP Reliability: Reasonable pump life assessed from published statistics
In the preface to a recent Pump User's Handbook (ISBN 0-88173-517-5) we alluded to pump failure statistics. These failure statistics are often translated into mean-time-between-failure (MTBF). For wha..
Pitfalls of operating pumps at part load
The risk in terms of reduced reliability and safety is not worth it
HP Reliability: How to find a job and keep it . . .
That was the heading on a periodical that I always enjoy reading. It made the point that "Many people lose their jobs not because of a lack of technical skill, but because they lack the ability to com..
HP Reliability: Consider bidirectional flow devices for mechanical seals
Many dual mechanical seals found in centrifugal pumps use either pumping rings or pumping screws to move barrier fluid. Typical flowrates achieved with pumping rings are extremely low, with most of th..
HP Reliability: Don't just repair: Upgrade!
 Fig. 1     Bearing mounting options. A well-known trade journal recently published a page on thrust-bearing orientation..
HP Reliability: Filtration and beta ratios
Effective filtration of lubrication and hydraulic systems is of real importance to the reliability professional. The general idea is to allow no particles larger than the clearances in system componen..
HP Reliability: Unreliability, engineers and lawyers
I have often engaged in litigation support. To me, litigation support is a term meaning one might occasionally choose to work for law firms that pay engineers to relate how and why machines function a..
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