Air Leak or Steam Leak Survey

[newengr]

Anybody know of any companies that conduct air leak or steam leak surveys? Do you think it is beneficial to have an air leak or steam leak survey done? What has been your experience with air leak and steam leak surveys(price for survey $, price for repairs $, payback time #months or #years, benificial). Do you know of any air leak or steam leak companies that will do a free survey of one small area of the plant to give me an idea of the type of work they do?

 

[TD2K]

I don't have any direct experience.

http://www.google.com

and 'steam leak survey companies' gets you lots of hits. I believe the US government's DOE website also has information on the cost for air and steam leaks.

For steam leaks, I wouldn't see the need to bring in an outside company unless they are also going to do work like thermography to see how your current heat loss picture looks like from piping and equipment and what additional insulation would get you. It's straightforward to calculate how much steam you are losing through various sized holes at different pressures. The problem is quantifying how much steam is being lost (seeing the leaks is easy) in your plant.

Compressed air leaks are a little more difficult but again, it's fairly straight forward. Follow the piping, leak check joints, fittings and valves and fix as needed. You can get more fancy and review your air pressure versus individual requirments. Higher than required air pressure typically just wastes air while lower air pressure can affect equipment peformance. Again, Google will get you lots of hits.

I support both audits but the problem is usually that it's difficult to quantify the savings at the end of the day. Also, it needs to be a regular scheduled program or once you fix everything, more leaks will start to develop and you wind up in the same spot.

 

[Cormoran]

Consult with ultrasonic devices mfg, as UE or anothers.
They has information and associated in this services.
Alfredo

 

[saxon]

For air leaks check with the Ingersoll Rand Co.. They have a group that can do this type of Service for you. The testing can encompass both a supply side analysis and a demand side analysis.

As for the Steam side analysis, check with Armstrong International. When they are done they can set up a P/M program so that you can stay on top of your system

 

[Razif]

How does one go about estimating the losses of steam through leaking/passing start up drain valves and steam traps if there are no available characteristics for the manual gate valves? Anybody have typical characteristics for the gate valves of 3/4" in size? How too do we estimate the losses through steam traps?

 

[JKEngineer]

Air leak surveys can be performed well by air borne ultrasound. UE Systems is a manufacturer of the instruments and well versed in their application. A contact there would be Mark Goodman. Their website is

http://www.uesystems.com

. Their main office is in Elmsford NY, just north of NYC. Where are you?

Ultrasound and IR thermography are complementary technologies for steam surveys. They can be used both on traps and on leaks to atmosphere. The IR will also identify heat losses through, for example, bad/missing/wet insulation.

If you are in the NYC area, I would be willing to provide the sample survey you are requesting. If not, I would be willing to talk about general surveys. I am sure others would as well. [Yes this is a commercial response, in a direct answer to a posed question.]

Obviously payback depends not only the cost of the survey, but the number and sizes of problems found. Most literature indicates that plants that have not had surveys done regularly or recently are wasting LOTS of money. UE Systems has published a table of the annual cost of an air leak. Impressive numbers.

Many years ago I saw a suggestion from a manufacturing facility that struck me as very smart. They had a billboard at the workers' entrance to the plant supplied with a steam line and a set of holes of varying diameters, such as 1/16 inch up to 1/2 inch. During shift change they pressurized the line. The billboard said something like: "If you see a leak today and it looks like a, b, or c, then fixing it will save $x, $y, $z" It gave a visual index for how a particular size leak would look under the day's conditions and also reminded the workers that energy costs were important.

HTH
Jack Jack M. Kleinfeld, P.E. Kleinfeld Technical Services, Inc.
Infrared Thermography, Finite Element Analysis, Process Engineering

http://www.KleinfeldTechnical.com