Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning

Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC)

Heating and ventilation are of utmost importance in both homes and office buildings.

That’s why we employ the help of HVAC systems. Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems function to maintain the comfort and safety of building occupants. Heating and air conditioning components assist us by controlling indoor climate and proper airflow, ensuring that we neither freeze nor sweat. Health benefits of a well-maintained HVAC system come into play with the prevention of mold, which frequently thrives in warm, damp areas. We want to do our best to maximize efficiency.

A HVAC Industry's Unplanned Downtime Is Costly

When an equipment in the manufacturing line fails, production is down. It may take days or even weeks for repair and replacement to be completed. Workflows are interrupted, there is a loss in output capacity and revenue.

With a more proactive approach to maintaining equipment instead of costly reactively repairs, you can get a longer lifespan and output from your equipment. An estimated 12-18% of the budget can be saved with proactive maintenance.

Business Insider

Just 1 minute of downtime due to a HVAC failure, costs USD $22,000 for the HVAC Industry.

Preventive Maintenance Is Important

Systems breakdown due to a number or combination of factors, rarely just one. This results in devestating loss of equipment and revenue in HVAC Industries.

Lacking or irregular maintenance procedures also increase the likelihood of equipment failure or human error. Combine this with inconsistent processing situations, the result can be costly with unplanned downtime.

Unplanned downtime negatively affect production capacity and increase operating expenses. The damaged equipment must be inspected properly and repaired fast before beginning operation again.

Preventive maintenance increases the reliability of equipment which is critical to achieve long-term profitable operations and tackle rising materials costs. This entails having detailed site-specific maintenance schedules, procedures, and training.

Maintenance procedures should include five phases:

Initial Survey of Process
On-Site Study
Development of Schedule and Training
Implementation of the Maintenance Plan, and
Follow-Up to Determine Success Rate.

Heat Exchangers in the HVAC Industry

Heat Exchangers are an essential part of a HVAC system today. They contribute greatly towards energy conservation and reduction in energy bills.

The main function of a heat recovery system is to increase the energy efficiency by reducing energy consumption and operational cost by transferring heat between two gases or fluids. Both these substances are physically separated and there is no direct contact between the fluids or gases.

The transfer of heat can be between steam and water, water and steam, refigerant and water, regridgerant and air, or water and water.

With Heat Exchangers, energy bills will be less costly.

Minimise Tube Failures

Three main areas for improvement to minimise future in-service tube failures are:

Tube Testing
Re-Tubing Strategy During Turnarounds
Design Improvements in Heat Exchangers

For the first point of tube inspection, we recommend using a suitable tube inspection device. This device needs to have the ability and accuracy to detect the common flaws found in the Heat Exchangers.

Common Problems

Process Corrosion
Steam or Condensate Corrosion
Process Fouling

Heat Exchangers to Inspect with APRIS

Chiller
Waste Heater Boiler
Water Tube Boiler

Tube Inspection with APRIS

Technologies for inspecting Heat Exchanger tubes are constantly changing and improving rapidly. With increased sophistication and complexity of today’s Non-Destructive Examination (NDE) techniques, the operator’s skill level is becoming more vital.

To correctly identify the flaws and tube failures, a reliable technology and technician is needed.

APRIS is a smart tube inspection device that doesn’t compromise the ease-of-use with higher complexity and sophistication.

A typical tube inspection tool would require a user to have years of experience. But with APRIS, any technician can accurately find flaws with little training.

apris tube inspection equipment