New technology allows processors to monitor electrical power in their plant and diagnose hiccups so they can more intelligently find a solution. For D.J. Parry, it was a real head-scratcher. The operations manager of stretch-film processor Goodwrappers Inc. was first made aware of some odd goings-on in his Baltimore plant in February. His third-shift team told him of output losses resulting from his two extrusion lines slowing down, seemingly out of nowhere. Moreover, his water-circulation units, which are used to cool his extruders, were conking out altogether.  Had gremlins been running amok in Parry’s plant in the wee hours of...

Internet of Things (IoT) has been on the hotbed of activity last several years. While till about 2015, IoT was at its peak of ‘Gartner Hype Cycle’, the euphoria has died down considerably with many others like AI and blockchain taking its slot at the top. IoT is on a downward path of the Hype cycle now but as the authors have articulated in previous posts, articles and interviews, IoT, especially Industrial IoT would see a steady but slow progress over a decade. IT deployment and automation took decades as well and adoption did not happen overnight. While the IoT...

Fig. 1: Typical compressor installation in factory 1. Introduction: Compressor failure is also a common factory problem and it costs a huge loss of production if it fails suddenly. More importantly, in large factory compressors are connected in cascaded way so one single failure can affect other compressor. We can think it as an electromechanical machine/device where one electrical machine(motor) and mechanical pump are combined together. Due to poor power quality supply to the compressor, it can fail. 2. Common causes of compressor failure:     a. Presence of VFD/DC drive nearby:     b. High current imbalance in compressor input...

1. Introduction: Now days LED lights are widely used by people to save electricity cost and at the same time it plays a vital role to make environment pollution free  as it does not contain any toxic element such as mercury. All the LED bulb does have driver in built. This basically takes AC power and converts it to DC using high frequency switching. 2. Common electrical causes of LED light/bulb burning: Over voltage Frequent voltage fluctuation   Effect of over voltage on LED light/bulb LED light/bulb is DC operated device but takes 230AC as input. It converts AC to...

Fig. 1: Localized breach in sheath of titanium sheathed process heater Fig. 2: Multiple physical and wire breaks in a titanium sheathed process heater 1. Introduction: Heater coils are mostly resistive element which consumes whole active power and dissipates the same as heat. It is the Jule effect ( H= I2 x R x t) which produces the heat. Overheating is the main root cause of such heater failure because every heater does have a certain power dissipation capability beyond that it can fail.  2. Common causes of heater coil burning: a. High voltage imbalance in the lines where heater...