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: Understanding periodic pump switching and parallel operation
Many process plants have "identical" centrifugal pumps installed in a given service. Most of these were probably intended as spare equipment. They would be started up in the event the primary pump ha..
HP Reliability: Feedback from a pump person
In early 2009, we responded to a reader's request for data; he wanted to use it in a site-wide benchmarking project for pumpf reliability. The reader was employed at a company location that encompasse..
HP Reliability: Modern pumps have stiffer shafts
Some multistage centrifugal pumps are designed with relatively slender shafts and operate at speeds above the so-called rotor critical. When that is the case and as the pump comes up to operating spee..
Smart motor lubrication saves energy
Many decades of experience confirm the success of oil mist for rolling-element bearings in the operating speed and size ranges found in motors for process pumps. For the past 40 years, empirical data ..
Consider ceramic bearings for screw compressors
This retrofit resulted in a six-fold increase in service life
HP Reliability: Electric motors and mechanical efficiency
Reliability-focused readers know quite a bit about oil mist and many use plantwide oil mist systems for their process pumps and electric motor drivers. In fact, some major grassroots olefins plants us..
HP Reliability: Why continuing education gets dropped first
Fact: An oil refinery in the Western US achieves a pump mean-time-between-failure (MTBF) of over nine years. The facility has 1,200 pumps and, in a given year, repairs 130 of them. Fact: An oil refine..
HP Reliability: Consider recessed-impeller pumps
Perhaps you have encountered pumping duties handling free-flowing slurries, sludge and fibrous materials. If used in these services, a standard centrifugal pump may clog, become vapor-bound or wear ex..
What's new in vertical enclosed shaft-driven sump pumps
Advanced designs incorporate axial-spiral design casing internals and fully recessed impellers
HP Reliability: Getting all the facts is more important than ever
An old friend once told me that even the thinnest pancake has two sides. He meant to say there are at least two sides to any argument and listening to only one will be a mistake. In harmony with this..
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