Euro Maintenance Next
In the new Rotterdam Ahoy Convention Centre, the largest maintenance event in Europe will take place from 29 up to 31 March 2021. The workshop proposal of Dijkgraaf-Support has been selected to be part of the conference program. See the pitch video here below:
Workshop description
For delivering the Global Sustainable Development Goals, the circular economy has been listed as one of the biggest market opportunities. The circular economy is considered an important piece of the puzzle in addressing the world resource challenges. There is growing awareness that a circular economy could also play a role in achieving the Paris goals by reducing the overall level of greenhouse gas emissions.
The issue is that circular maintenance is currently still a ‘blind spot’ in our industry and is also difficult to quantify. To give an impression, the yearly fugitive emission in the Rotterdam - Europoort region by the petrochemical industry is estimated in the range of 80-100 tons of product / year. Because of the high number of bolted flanges connections installed into production units, flange diffuse emission is a significant contributor.
The flange diffuse emissions are caused by a width spread of flange joint imperfections. In the workshop the basic principles of the flange joint design will be explained based on the simplified three spring model, composed of the bolts, the gasket and the flange pair. Based on the experience gained over many years as flange trainer / consultant the root causes of most flange joint imperfections will be listed. Most essential are the flange assembly quality and the applied flange tightening method and tools. At the end, the essence of the workshop will be discussed, being the relationship of bolt load inaccuracies and fugitive emissions.
Demonstrations
1. Measuring tightening accuracy using hand torque wrench
Upon entrance, visitors are given the opportunity to tighten one bolt with the torque wrench set at 100. [Nm]. By means of an electronic calibration block, the actual applied tightening torqueses are measured. During the presentation, assistants will work out the results. At the end of the presentation, the results will be projected. This will show the range of inaccuracy achieved by the visitors using a hand torque wrench. Experience shows that improper usage of the hand torque wrench can result in a very high inaccuracy.
2. Demonstration of high bolt load scatter in case of improper flange tightening sequence
In the workshop classroom, a flange is fixed on a workbench, equipped with load-cells. As integral part of the presentation, a visitor out of the audience will be ask to tighten the flange using a hand wrench and another visitor will be ask to tighten using a hand torque wrench. On the screen, the real time bolt load fluctuations are displayed. So all the visitors can monitor themselves the measured bolt load variations and inaccuracies.