Tech-Article

1. Field Feature
Quality service
in the fifi eld at
Elliott Company
Mohammed Khalil
Described by colleagues as a “very dedicated and ambitious engineer who could always be counted
on no matter how enormous the task”, Mohammed Khalil is Field Service Engineer (FSE) at Elliott
Group. His job is to supervise all the activities related to turbo machinery and pump installation,
commissioning and maintenance in both planned and emergency shut downs. Pump Engineer
caught up with him in Bahrain where he is currently based.
By Andrew Peers
Pump Engineer, June 2013 2

2. Typical process pump.
Courtesy of SULZER Co.
MTBF and reduce MTFR.” The other important part of
the challenge is the fulfi llment of customer requirements
for after-sales services in time and up to expectations.
This requires a combination of using state of the
art design software and manufacturing techniques,
deploying qualifi ed crews and repair facilities all around
the globe. Still there is a felt need to optimize the
whole process to deliver the pump and services at a
competitive price to maximize the market share, all the
more because the number of competitors had increased
in the last two decades notably in the emerging
economies such as China, India and Far East markets.
In the past, everyone seemed to be concerned about
data such as MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures), and
when asked if this was still a hot topic, he replied that it
depends. “Every individual plant has its own management
philosophy regarding the asset maintenance. As you
know the modern plants. which are more dependent on
automation (also called total management philosophy)
generally prefer a no-man, long term uninterrupted
operation, so the dependence on modern machinery
health monitoring techniques and statistics analysis
(such as MTBF, MTFR, Availability & Reliability records)
in fault detection is high, compared to conventional
plants which still use the old ways in performing the
Mohammed prepares Standard Work Procedure
[SWP] for maintenance of units at both client fi eld and
factory workshop to ensure achieving the assigned
jobs in compliance of both company, client safety
and quality policies. He also troubleshoots the male
functioning units and sets a fi nal economical solution
of the problem with aid of Root Cause Failure Analysis
techniques. “As an average you can say my time is split:
35% offi ce work (behind desk) and 65% at site practicing
with crew, which I most prefer.
In my prospective experience is a matter of accumulated
hands on skills and knowledge shared thru discussions
with other people in the same career. I used to have
discussions with work colleagues when I used to do
job as maintenance engineer at oil & gas facilities. Also
I fi nd discussions are with professionals on the web
forums where we share our experience and try to solve
the issues related to pumps or other rotating equipment
another source to gain more knowledge.
Now as OEM specialist, the main developments for
design concern performance improvement, mechanical
design or environmental issues improvement and this is
mainly the responsibility of either the R&D department
or technical support.”
Meanwhile fi eld service and work shop team is in
direct contact with the customer during installation,
commissioning and after-sales services which includes
another types of troubles which sometimes need
innovative solution. Mohammed says most of the
problems are concerning mechanical issues (high
vibrations or pre-mature failures), making almost
an average of 50% of the request calls that come in.
Others include seal performance improvement of
25% share (considered also as environmental issue
when hydrocarbon and toxics are involved). “From my
prospect the most challenge facing the pump industry
is the increased demand for a hyper frame pumps
with high standards performance, and less required
maintenance and reliability records to increase the
Typical System arrangement to a pump or Motor
with rolling element bearings.
Courtesy of API.
www.pumpengineer.net 3

3. Typical transferring pump.
Courtesy of SULZER Co.
required maintenance which include hiring personnel
crew. Time remains the most cost-eff ective variable but
the maintenance crew has an accumulated experience
so they can detect the problem quickly.
Each approach has its own benefi ts and disadvantages.
The fi rst one benefi ts from low overhead and running
costs compared to conventional ones, but on other
hand, the capital cost in modern plants is higher if
compared to old ones.”
Mohammed gave some common tips for running your
machine safely in both cases including:
• Maintain a precision level of balancing and
alignment for your pump to reduce the pump’s
power use and also increase the life-time for such
parts as seals and bearings which could be aff ected
by over stressing.
• Maintain a proper record of pump health conditions
such as lubricant analysis or noise and vibration
level measurements, to assure early detection of any
faults signs before severe damage occurs.
• Maintain a proper log for the pump after every
maintenance performed as a history record for your
machine, which helps in setting your requirements
for spares or future repairs where existing problems
could not be solved in time.
“The more critical the pump is to the process, the more
monitoring techniques should be deployed to the pump.
This is applicable even for modern plants where it’s
unwise, very costly and consumes many working hours to
apply all of these techniques to the whole machine fl eet
in the plant. The common on-line monitoring techniques
being applied are vibration and temperature monitoring,
used for almost all critical and mega frame pumps (i.e
feed pumps for boilers & furnaces, critical transfer pumps
or product pumps as in ethylene and ammonia plants).
Portable vibration analysis techniques are more common
to process pumps where it’s not economical to provide
on-line monitoring instruments for such pumps.
Another common technique is the thermal imaging
technique which is also very helpful diagnostic tool for
pump condition. Power consumption analysis is more
common in turbo machine applications (i.e., centrifugal
compressors in gas or petrochemicals plants) than
in process pump applications, but for large pumping
stations (either water or transferring applications) it’s
being applied for mega frame pumps using turbo drive
pri-movers (steam/gas turbines), gas engines or high
voltage electric motors. Lubricant analysis (such as
oil and particle analysis) is also applicable for critical
applications with large amounts of lubrication. For other
applications such as common process pumps, it’s more
economical just to maintain replacing the lubricant
Typical Installations of Radial Bearing
Temperature Sensors.
Courtesy of API.
Pump Engineer, June 2013 4

4. on frequent intervals and to keep the records of the
visual condition of the lubricant upon replacement as
an indicator of any existing problems within the pump.
Improving pump performance is a matter of maintaining
or restoring the internal pump components’ profi le (i.e.,
impellers, volute or diff users) and maintaining strict
internal clearances up to original condition or common
established standards (i.e., API, ASME or ANSI).
I asked Mohammed if he had have any framework
agreements within then whole group. He said that it
depended on the nature of the project being handled.
Commonly for large projects involving either train or
multiple trains extensions or revamping end user will
go for EPC provider to do all the sizing, bedding and
procurement then it comes to the manufacturer. For
other cases such as simple train or individual machine
revamping or replacement, he said that the end user
engineering department will take responsibility for setting
the specifi cations and contract terms with the vendor.
Mohammed’s work experience started as Rotating
Equipment Maintenance Engineer for two diff erent oil
refi neries (one was old fashioned and the other was
considered as modern) plus one modern polyethylene
plant. Two years as Pump Assembly Shop Engineer was
followed by a change to Field Service Engineer for the
Elliott Group. Mohammed considers training important
and EBARA Corporation (holding company for the Elliott
Group) aff ords apprenticeship programs for individuals at
manufacturing plants. There is also training being aff orded
to customers upon request either at situ or vendor
facility. Mohammed said it would be good to improve the
maintenance quality by providing high standard tools and
proper training for individuals performing maintenance,
and to improve the monitoring systems to the current
state of art systems available. “From my prospective,
I feel great satisfaction when I go home after a working
day, having taken part in solving a problem or developing
a solution that was successful in terms of saving money
for my employer, whilst maintaining the asset in proper
condition for production. More or less, it’s the joy of
feeling being helpful to others.”
Elliott supplies and services turbo machinery for the full
spectrum of oil and gas, refi ning, LNG, petrochemical
and other process and power applications. Their
global service network routinely installs, overhauls,
repairs, upgrades and re-rates machines from any
manufacturer. Field services include:
• Assistance to analyze and diagnose problems
and take corrective action.
• Technical direction of routine maintenance to
keep turbo machinery running more effi ciently
and for longer periods.
• Technical opinions and repair recommendations
• Technical direction and assistance for new
installations and startups.
• Project manager services to coordinate all
phases of outage service work including major
overhaul, inspection, outage and maintenance
support and relocation and installation services.
www.pumpengineer.net 5