Know Your Equipment

By Michelle Segrest, Navigate Content, Inc. - Reporting for Valve World and Pump Engineer Magazines

George Corfield is a professional maintenance and operations manager and mining engineer, with more than 20 years of experience in operations, equipment repair and overhaul, maintenance, and engineering functions for diversified industrial and mining organizations. His expertise lies in problem solving, operations, cost analysis, communicating vision, and strategic planning. Retired since 2014, Corfield works from his Mesa, Arizona, USA office and uses his skills and experience to consult companies in organizing and coaching teams to affect solutions and solve complex problems in maintenance, equipment rebuilding, mineral and chemical processing, and asset management. When working with valves and pumps, it’s important to know your equipment, according to George Corfield, a mining engineer and maintenance manager with more than 20 years of experience working with valves and pumps. Click here to read the full article. 

Building Projects from Scratch that Make an Impact

For more than 30 years, Steve Tourigny has been involved in the design, development, and management of many products, processes, plants, and businesses. Through his experience, he gained expertise with startups, helping companies get key projects off the ground. With extensive engineering, operations and partnering experience, he now works has an independent consultant servicing a variety of industries in an advisory capacity. 

By Michelle Segrest, Navigate Content, Inc. - Reporting for ValveWorld, ValveWorld Americas, and Pump Engineer

Steve Tourigny typically works with small- to medium-sized companies helping them work through new products or processes. They all want two things—low cost and fast results.  “They are all trying to find the ‘best of breed’ solutions,” he said. “They are all extremely cost and schedule conscious and are continuously evaluating their core competencies versus what should be farmed out to partners. I use my extensive experience and network of contacts to guide them in specific areas.” Follow this link to read the full article.

For Problem Solving Pumps & Valves, Look at the System as a Whole

Abhijit Ray Chauduri has been associated with pump and valve selection, evaluation, procurement, and operation supervision for nearly 34 years. Currently based in Kolkata, India, he is the head of the Pumping Systems Group inside the VA TECH WABAG organization. He oversees the selection, procurement, and operational issues related to pumps, valves, and the associated electrical and mechanical equipment. 

By Michelle Segrest, Navigate Content, Inc. - Reporting for Pump Engineer and Valve World

Many years ago, Abhijit Ray Chaudhuri had the opportunity to listen to a lecture by I. J. Karassik, a Russian-American engineer known for his pioneering work with pumps, He wrote over 1,100 technical articles and papers on pump use and maintenance, as well as several books, including Centrifugal Pump Selection, Operation and Maintenance, Engineers' Guide to Centrifugal Pumps, and Centrifugal Pump Clinic. He also co-wrote Pump Questions and Answers, and co-edited the Pump Handbook. The lecture inspired Abhijit to forge a similar career path. “Karassik was the grand old man of the pumping industry and I heard him in a seminar at Delhi while in my final year of mechanical engineering in college,” Abhijit said. “Inspired, I joined Worthington Corporation in India as a graduate engineer trainee. I learned the basics there during my tenure, especially about chemical process pumps as well as pumps for water services. Since valves are an integral part of any pumping system, I picked up working knowledge of them.” To read the full article, please follow this link. 

Engineering At Sea and On Land

Running the engineering department on an aircraft carrier during the first Gulf War prepared Bruce Ames for a lifelong career that kept him busy in all types of industries—paper, power, trucking, and more. Now, a lubrication engineer with ExxonMobil, he uses his diverse skills to develop programs to help his customers save money, energy, and time.

By Michelle Segrest, Navigate Content, Inc. - Reporting for Pump Engineer, Valve World and Valve World Americas

Bruce Ames’s family genes are deep in two things—engineering and the Navy. His engineer father and brother-in-law were Navy, and this family history inspired him to pursue and earn a four-year scholarship to Maine Maritime Academy. This is where he received a degree in marine engineering technology and acquired a Coast Guard license. He was commissioned by his Naval officer brother on graduation day, and shipped off to a three-year duty aboard the USS Forrestal. 

The 1,100-foot aircraft carrier was made famous when it caught on fire in July of 1967, triggering a chain-reaction of explosions that killed 134 sailors and injured 161. At the time, Forrestal was engaged in combat operations in the Gulf of Tonkin, during the Vietnam War. The ship survived, but with damage exceeding US$72 million, not including the damage to aircraft. Future United States Senator John McCain and future four-star admiral and U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Ronald J. Zlatoper were among the survivors. Ames served his time on the Forrestal from 1989 to 1992, more than two decades later, but some of the explosion damage left challenges for the future engineers and operators. Read the full story by following this link. 

The Importance of Training

Interview with Adolfo Gomez, Pump & Seal Trainer and Instructor

By Michelle Segrest, Navigate Content, Inc. - Reporting for Pump Engineer, Valve World, and Valve World Americas

Adolfo Gomez began his career working with agricultural irrigation. This led to hands-on work for chemical processing plants and oil refineries. His diverse experience developed into a passion for teaching and training young end users and sharing his more than three decades of knowledge and experience. Read the full story by following this link. 

Developing a Reliability Strategy

Gina Kittle drives processes and programs for her company and SMRP.

By Michelle Segrest, Navigate Content, Inc. - Reporting for Efficient Plant Magazine

As a young girl, Gina Hutto Kittle would sit in the garage with her father and grandfather and study their every movement. She watched her father—a mechanic—fix anything that the neighbors needed repaired. Her grandfather, Owen Ramsey, worked with Red Stone Arsenal in Huntsville, AL, where he was part of the core group that launched the first missile into space. Kittle would play with his drafting tools and ask hundreds of questions about how things worked and how to fix them when they broke. Even though she didn’t really know what engineers did, she knew she wanted to be one. Follow this link to read the full story. 

Solution Seeking vs. Problem Solving

For four decades, Stephen Matthews has been helping facility personnel improve reliability with a “boots on the ground” approach.

By Michelle Segrest - Reporting for Efficient Plant Magazine

You won’t find Stephen Matthews sitting in an office, and you won’t see him wearing a coat and tie. “I am totally embedded on the shop floor—100% of the time,” the veteran reliability consultant said. “Whether it’s in operations or in maintenance, I firmly believe that the shop floor is where everything happens. I also work on all shifts, and that is where you really see what is going on. I look like one of the guys, and I ask questions.” Matthews uses his 39 years of engineering, maintenance, operations, and reliability experience to work with companies on various projects in many types of asset-intensive industries. He is based in Montréal, but works with companies all over Canada, the United States, and even travels as far as Siberia, Russia, to help companies with various reliability-improvement programs. He evaluates work management, supply-chain management, and reliability engineering practices, in addition to identifying performance gaps and recommending short-, medium-, and long-term solutions. To read the full story, please follow this link. 

Bionics Drive Future Factories

Festo’s Bionic Learning Network studies the movement and behavior of animals in nature to inspire interactive, intelligent technology and machines that stretch the boundaries of factory automation.

By Michelle Segrest, Navigate Content - Reporting for Maintenance Technology Magazine

Walk through Festo’s headquarters in Esslingen, Germany, and you’ll witness what appears to be science fiction. Artificial intelligence and energy efficiency are deeply imbedded into its bionic robots. The engineers at Festo believe that by turning to nature to study the behavior, movement, and communication techniques of mammals, insects, and reptiles, you can build a smart factory with advanced automation. In fact, you can build the factory of the future. Please follow this link to read the full story. 

Water & Wastewater Pumping Solutions

Advancements in water treatment and plant modernization drive growth in the water and wastewater pumping industry.

By Michelle Segrest, Navigate Content - Reporting for Maintenance Technology Magazine

While new construction in the municipal water-treatment market has remained relatively flat, growth in the industrial water-treatment market has increased—driven largely by modernization efforts that seem to be pervasive across the power-generation segment, according to Charles P. Crowley Company (CPC, Baldwin Park, CA, cpcrowley.com) managing director Jon Crowley. One trend that Crowley sees throughout the industry is modernization through “repowering.”

Read the full article by following this link.