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Volume 5, Issue 6
Creating a nervous system for pipelines
Feature
Hifi Engineering are a Calgary, Canada-based company who utilise fibre optics for preventative leak detection. Fluid Handling International spoke with company founder John Hull about the potential of this innovative technology. By the time a pipeline operator detects a leak thousands of litres of fluid could have already escaped. To solve this issue, Hifi Engineering has developed a technology...
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Beating bubbles to measure flow
Feature
Wherever hydrocarbon fluid is transferred, there is a risk of gas entrainment at the beginning or the end of a process. Gas entrainments are a challenge for accurate measurement with all flowmeter technologies. Accuracy of information at the well site is critical, since royalties are based on what is loaded there. The old standard mechanical meters and even newer mass flowmeters simply cannot...
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Creating oil transfer solutions for the 'new normal'
Feature
For many, 2017 will go down as a year in which the oil industry has had to adapt to a ‘new normal’. The winners in this climate are those adapting their business practices to become leaner, more flexible, and more efficient in the long-term – rethinking approaches from the bottom up and instilling practices for the long term, rather than employing cost-cutting measures as a...
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Are your pumps counterfeit?
Feature
It is a commonly-held view that counterfeiting and patent infringements predominantly happen in the consumer goods markets where large global organisations go to extreme lengths to protect their brands and corporate identities. The global market in counterfeit goods costs companies many billions in lost revenues and in fact goes way beyond high profile consumer products. Manufacturers of capital...
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Innovations in safety for chemical transfer
Feature
Two steps forward, one step back. That’s what it feels like to run an operation with a leaky pump. Leaky pumps inevitably lead to unscheduled downtime and increased maintenance needs. This stalls productivity and costs the average company hundreds of thousands of dollars per hour of downtime. Now add hazardous chemicals into the equation. Aggressive acids and slurries can cause pumps to...
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Keep your pumps flowing
Feature
Submersible dewatering pumps have one clear goal – to move water, whether it’s to another location for reuse or to simply remove water from a low-lying area. For the most part they require minimal maintenance. Before you set and forget your submersible dewatering pumps though, there are some preventative maintenance practices you should follow to keep them operating day in and day out...
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Ten considerations for better gate valve operation
Feature
Reliable gate valve operation isn’t dependent solely on the product itself. In fact, it’s more accurate to say that reliability is the product of sound utility operations. Valves are arguably the most critical components of a water system. They are necessary for supplying water for residential and commercial use, allowing operators to control flow, isolate sections of pipeline systems...
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A single solution for shutdown valve failures
Feature
Employing best practices and complying with international industry standards simply are not enough to prevent incidents within plants that can cause serious injury, loss of life, damage to facilities and equipment, or consequences to the environment. Why is this so? Despite rigorous risk assessments and SIL analyses in accordance with International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) I61508 and IEC...
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Lots of data - a single language
Feature
About ten years ago, a group of pioneers in the German petroleum industry embarked on an important mission: they began collaborating on the development of IFLEXX, an open standard format for exchanging data within the downstream industry. Nowadays, in a world dominated by big data and tightly linked supply chains, standardised data communication has become mission critical. Fluid Handling...
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A smooth path to drive coupling selection
Feature
Engineers and designers can often face a daunting task when itcomes to specifying the most appropriate drive coupling for the task in hand. Drive couplings vary greatly in their design and capabilities, so for any given application engineers must ensure that they specify the drive coupling correctly to ensure reliable, efficient, and in the more challenging applications, safe operation.
Brexit and the pump industry
Feature
A vast amount of UK legislation contains references to EU treaties, and the government will be seeking to stabilise UK law and regulations as fast as possible. These regulations, laws and directives contain material which can directly tip the buoyancy of the UK’s pump industry. Basic practises like CE Marking and Declaration of Conformity, for example, will need to be reviewed for inclusion...
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