THE SAFETY OF AUTOMATION TECHNOLOGY.

Seimen,(2005) emphasized that in an effort to help customer and end user adopt safety measures in equipment and plant ,Seimens automation and drive laughed safety technology and engineering partnership (STEP), a life cycle safety engineering services which cover risk assessment ,validation,continue maintenance re-validation.
STEP responds to the needs of greater understanding of both regulations and standards in the market place.Its launch follows a HSES survey entitled : out of control; which revealed that 60% of failure analysed were caused by incorrect design or implementation of a safety system.This mean that the system were fundamentally flawed even before the equipment was put into service.Th remaining 40% of accidents were caused by poor installation,incorrect maintenance and uncontrolled modifications.none of the failure was as a result of product specification.As path of STEP, Seimens has asked its distributors to commit where possible to increase their knowledge and advised capabilities in the field of safety- where this has not been possible, normally through lack of available resources,the company had sourced a third party organization to provide these services direct to the distributor. Solution being provided are also being put through the same process. Each company will be accessed;on its ability to supply equipment and plant with a complete safety solution .Accessment is being based on establishing and qualifying the competency levels of such integrator s, a process which could be monitored as safety standard developed .To complete the equipment and plant port folio of safety product is a new frequency converter The latest edition to the semantic ET 2005  family for the converter deliver speed control for asynchronous motors , solve drive task  ranging from few frequency through a stringent  vector control and includes functionalities such as safety integrated and hot swapping .The new converted has series of integrated control mechanism that increases the safety of the equipment and plant especially where there is a risk of personnel injury .the safety function such as safe stop prevent intentional starting of the drive and safe braking ramp, such as monitor and stand still . The equipment and plant  safety relieve prevent starting speed limit from being exceeded and could be implemented without the need of motor encoders at minimal outlay .( Siemen,,2005)

THE COST OF PLANT NOISE AND ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES

Hewitt (2005) commented on the exhaust silencer industry as being describe as a ,grey art,where only those who work in the industry understood something of the product design.Customers have traditionally accepted the silencer manufacturer word that product would be correct with noise level required. Very few installation were actually measured and acceptance was by the ear methods.The silencer industry continued to manufacture ancient designs,due to lack of qualified design engineers and more importantly,,non - availability of facilities to test new designs and prove performance. Over the years price became the issue rather than performance and in recent years several installation   have failed noise test and proved very costly to add attenuation and bring them up to specification.The traditionally types of exhaust silencer are reactive and absorptive. The reactive design is most effective at low very frequencies and comprises perforated or plain tube contained in empty chambers. The absorptive design on the other hand,suppress noise by absorbing the sound wave within a mineral fiber infill.The combination silencer as the name implies, combine both principle within a common body. As previously stated that the technology is archaic,because it was based on designs from the innovators of between 70 to 80 years ago (Hewith, 2005).
Meanwhile, a company in France designed and developed its range of exhaust silencer using ground braking computer modeled technology developed in their own software house.
Stopson (2005), allowed her engineers to think beyond the previous accepted silencer designs and actually test it on engines. They found that to attenuate the problem of exhaust noise, you must firstly develop that which suppresses the dominant frequency to protrusive tonnes .The new thinking has been particularly effective in the relative chamber of silencer, low frequency needs volume to suppresses the sound waves. but the problem is that less and less space is being provided for exhaust silencers therefore the priority for the design was to inverse low frequency performance without increasing size .The design lay in developing a unique twin volume chamber that work more effectively than traditional perforated tube designs after a rigorous testing procedure,the performance was known and a silencer was applied with absolute confidence that the specification could be met.This known performance often reduces the need for a secondary silencer,because the necessary attenuation could be achieved with a single unit.This one for two solution not only reduces the cost  ,but also save space for the user for the future the priority is to keep pushing the boundaries to develop reactive chambers, that produces more attenuation at the vital  63 - 125 HZ frequency . As environmental noise level are driven lower and lower only those companies that invested in the engineers ,by providing facility for effective design will be able to meet, more stringent market requirement .It is unlikely that the demand for energy will diminish,while the demand for noise attenuation will increase , So it is assured that those companies invested on development of effective products are the one that will succeed .A palace,s electricity generating engine comprise four diesel powered engine typed Deutz Bu 16 m 628 - each generating approximately 200KVA .Acoustic confirmed pressure level from the engine exhaust to be 108dBA a totally unacceptable  noise level for daily living  was un -attenuated to LP - 45dBA at 10 meters .These was achieved through the utilization of primary silencer.The primary silencer used were based on the reactive principal in order to reduce the low frequency in sound emissions, while the secondary silencer were built on the absorptive principle to reduce minimum and high frequencies. All the equipment used were made of stainless steel.The primary were placed inside the plant room while the secondary silencer were positioned outside the plant room on the roof of the building.(Malcom,2005) .

DATA MANAGEMENT SYSTEM APPROACH AND QUALITY. ASSURANCE PRODUCT..

The data management is a systematic approach, i.e step by step data collection, and effective data navigating capability across an organization, with the use of proper computer tool set,it could generate an organised and folders and eventually, a sound database.A sound data based will provide a sophisticated platform for locating test data and for analyzing or mining them,as a result an  organization productivity could be increased.The foregoing step underlined the fact that the Engineer must identify the descriptive attributes,write the attributes into a centralized database, and mind those attributes to find the data sets for analysis or reporting.For the purpose of data management.The Engineer has to built a solution based on a standard computer tool set that offer features especially targeted to rectify mishandling of test data.
Elimination of the data problem will save valuable time in data process. Addressing data management problems means that pitfalls in data could be avoided. Engineers and other staff could locate test data promptly and share the results efficiently. Managing maintenance data effectively could save time and money invested by the organization in the data of products and services and help to sustain the organization(Sou,2005) .  

THE ADVANTAGES OF TIME OF PLIGHT DIRECTION IN INSPECTION

The new package offers high repeatability for periodic monitoring and quality assured data for extending protective machine life and enhancing plant safety.It is designed to minimize (or even eliminate) downtime and inspection time and is a positive way to avoid possibility of catastrophic failure with the high capital cost this involved. The TOFD has the ability to detect, and simultaneously size flaws of any orientation in any where within the weld and heat affected zone, regardless of the type and orientation (with exception of the near surface area). This carried out by using a single pair of ultrasonic transducer, and inspection rate of 50 to 100(m) weld per day are achievable independent on access.The main advantages advantages of TOFD versus radiography are as follows:  - No need for radiography protection rules.
                  -Other work could be carried out in the immediate vicinity with no evacuation required.
                  - Work could be carried out during a short down within 24 hours period without                                      destruction to any other activity                  
                  - Results are given in  real time negating the use of processing.
                  - Finite sizes are available therefore repair area could be accurately determined.
                 - Repair area could be quickly examined to prove removal of flaw by grinding.
                 - TOFD has been demonstrated to give lower repair rates.
                -Reporting is faster with an easily understood format.    

DATA MANAGEMENT FOR MAINTENANCE ENGINEERS

Cryphon (2005) commented that each data point a maintenance engineers keeps is worth money to his or her organization.If such data is irretrievable, the efforts and expense of time and energy that have been invested in the data management,is uncompromised as it affects the efficiency of the organization, For this reason, maintenance engineers has a vested interest in the data.Often data management computer are used and a simple approach towards data management is to search by file name and folder.Many maintenance engineers managed data through files and having them across numerous computers and the file name and folders structure are used to locate data sets.However,this simple and straight forward does not result in serious efficiency that will limit the benefit of the engineers or gain from the data they are paid to collect.sometime maintenance engineers encounter problems in data management in the following circumstances,using file name and folder to describe test data only,using computer operating system to locate test data,making telephone calls and sending e-mails to locate test data, failing to trace past test data.,re-running test because of data loss these are the systoms associated with the mishandling of test data.To get the most from the data management investment, the maintenance engineers needs tools and architecture for data management otherwise they will find it difficult to adentified the data into the results they need to derive from the constants.In the case of engineering design,engineer can run thousand of test on a new product,when virtual instrumentation becomes more sophisticated, There will be increasing number of types of instruments measurements. these will lead to an exponential growth in the test data which may be saved in numerous desktop computers.An engineer cannot locate or interpret,much of these scattered data without the knowledge of specific individuals such problems exist even with standard  number and file names

QUALITY CONTROL AND ENGINEERING CHANGES IN RE-MANUFACTURING

In the factory environment, and because more than two million parts and other devices are manufactured every year , Caterpillar invested in the most efficient processes for cleaning,savage and machining.Genuine parts are also used in replacement and the technlogy allowed caterpillar to recycle some parts, which are the most expensive major components in other to reduce Customer costs   .Engineering adaptation which are critical and have occured since the original was designed , are incorporated into the manufactured components. All engines are re-manufactured to the original emission certification . The focus of quality control means that many of the same inspection methods are used as would be with a new production . And when considered with the significant of environmental benefits of using manufactured parts, the argument for using such parts wherever possible becomes a compelling action to any responsible organization, (Ian ,2005).
A new service for the power industry involving routine inspction and emmergency testing of both turbine rotor shafts and of the generator retaining rings, and based on a new generation of inspection Equipment are delivered easily and interprets high definition test faster and cheaper than other bore scope systems.The control to the technique is  advanced utrasonic system for non destructive testing , defect characterisation and product sensing called sonomatic It is one of the world;s leader in
a non destructive technology. The system minimizes preparation and testing time to give turn - around and reduces cost. It has also the culmination of more than 15years of non destructive testing around the world. The bore sonic rotor shaft inspection system, known as ISS encompasses the rotor bore shaft itself, and includes ultrasonic inspection of outer surface,The inspection is applied radial axial and radial circumferential direction, and several techniques are applied to inspect the three different régions of the rotor shaft. these includes pulse echo ultrasonics, surface wave techniques and creep wave techniques.additionally time of plight direction(TOFD) may also be used as part of the defect accessment procédures.

BORE SCOPE TECHNOLOGY AND CONTROL.

Ian Mc math , ( 2005) emphasized that the bore scope technology is mostly applicable to open shafts,internal inspection of the engine ,and pipes. TOFD techniques - rapid volume system inspection -will detect characterized  and size inspection inherent forging flaws and axial bore cracking and radial circumferential cracking. Data could be analysed to give an accessment of the remaining life and could determine the effect of plant practice and plant propagation.The remaining rings, disc and shaft interface and rotor blade fixing may also be sucessfully examined using the specific application techniques.The retaining rings are inspected by the pulse echo (PE) and TOFD technques, depending on the particular design of the retaining rings.Automated tranducers are oriented to inspect the inner rings surface in both the radial, axial and circumferential directions. in area such as shrink fit where through transmission cause geometrical echoes,TOFD is particularised for effective benefit. Automated transducer specially designed by Veritec Sonomatic are used to test specific features such as bayonet fixings on fig-tree forms and internal changes of section. Rough surfaces and geometry far less than the others., because of the application of TOFD, which is much more forgiven on the surface condition, than pulse echo ultrasonics.The surface condition are seriously the effect of the transmission of the utrasonic energy into the test piece. The geometry is also more easily indentifiable with TOFD seriously, due to the full capturability of the technique. And the hard copy gray scale images generated,which gives visual identification of geometry, it minimizes false calls and is therefore extremely cost effective for inspecting large volume in a single- pass with no compromise on the quality. This reduces outage time allocated inspection and also increases achievable coverage. Dedicated software package enable defect profiles taken from sucessive inspections to be recorded and analyzed, to give extremely accurate measurement of crack growth rates. TOFD means Time of plight direction , which may be used as part of the defect assessment procédures, each inspection is designed to match requirement and specification ,(Ian.2005).