Capability Spotlight: Rethink Your Parts Strategy

The Critical Parts Landscape is Changing.

With the advent of innovative pattern making and additive manufacturing, end users have more options than ever before when it comes to parts supply. When faced with these exciting changes, it is important to develop a parts strategy that takes advantage of new technology while still reducing risk of component failure or unsuitability.

At Hydro Parts Solutions, we combine innovation with hard-earned experience in pump engineering, reverse engineering, materials, and casting.  Knowing that reverse engineering is far more complex than laser scanning and replication, they rely heavily on this experience and the knowledge of Hydro’s engineering network to verify critical dimensions, account for wear of the scanned component, upgrade tolerances, and provide a part that is better than the original.

By cultivating strong relationships with local foundries, Hydro Parts Solutions can provide expedited lead times while maintaining control of product quality throughout the manufacturing process. They adhere to strict process control procedures, including providing standardized parts numbers and generating drawings for every part.

Every job completed by Hydro Parts Solutions is passed through multiple levels of engineering and inspection checks, from model development through pattern creation to final machining and equivalency analysis.   This gives you confidence that the parts supplied will provide safe and reliable service.

As pump experts, Hydro has the experience to reverse engineer and supply complex hydraulic components and the resources to diagnose design problems and suggest targeted upgrades. Hydro routinely upgrades vintage equipment with proven design component design upgrades that counteract known failure modes. Our global engineering team works closely with our parts division to perform hydraulic modifications that increase efficiency or help end users meet changed system requirements.

The end result? Shorter lead times and longer component life.

Explore Hydro Parts Solutions’ state-of-the-art parts case studies.

Discover Hydro Parts Solutions here.

Contact us for a parts quote.

Modifying Existing Equipment to Maintain Operational Standards

Many aging manufacturing facilities have witnessed changes in market demand that have altered their product slate and capacity. These changing system demands often cause equipment that was previously well-sized for the application to run significantly away from the operating range where peak efficiency and reliability are achieved. Running in this mode drives up the life cycle cost of equipment due to short maintenance cycles and wasted energy. In cases where reliability is severely compromised, equipment operating costs can also be accompanied by risk to production due to mid-cycle failures and unavailability of equipment.

To maintain safe, reliable and cost-effective operation, it is important to ensure pump systems are optimized. When approached with the need to optimize a pump system, many end users will look to purchase new equipment for the changed demand. This can be a costly and time-intensive endeavor, as new equipment installation is often accompanied by baseplate and piping modifications that require the system to be taken offline. In contrast, modifying the existing equipment to meet the new system needs provides a custom solution that maintains the original footprint, can be completed on a more aggressive timeline and often provides a more custom fit to the system.

The decision to perform one such modification was made by a major Gulf Coast oil refinery that was running at a significantly lower flow than the original system demand. The site reliability team worked with Hydro to design and implement an extreme downrating of the existing equipment. The result was an optimized system that improved reliability of not only the pump, but other affected system components. 

Read our latest case study published with Pumps & Systems magazine where Hydro’s Sergio Ramos outlines how the process for this downrate and what the final outcome was for the end user.

Learn more about Hydro’s engineering services.

Lunch & Learn: Understanding the Capabilities and Limitations of Condition Monitoring

Join Hydro as we chat with Vince Marino of Empowering Pumps about the capabilities and limitations of condition monitoring.

Condition monitoring isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a vital part of keeping your equipment running smoothly. Robert and Jim explain how understanding its capabilities and limitations can enhance overall efficiency. They discuss how condition monitoring fits into a broader maintenance strategy, ensuring a cohesive approach to equipment upkeep and reliability.

You can watch the full lunch and learn here.

To learn more about Hydro’s Centaur condition monitoring, visit our Centaur webpage or contact us with questions.

We understand that hands-on experience is important in making an investment in a new technology, and provide end users with “test drives” of our monitoring solution through a commitment-free 90-day free trial. Interested in trying it out yourself? Apply here.

Podcast: Preserving Expertise, Harnessing AI, and Training the Next Generation

Hydro joined Empowering Pumps for another insightful discussion on preserving experience through innovation.

Listen to the latest Empowering Industry podcast, where Charli Matthews chats with our President of Total Solutions, Mike Mancini, about the challenges facing the industry today, including workforce training, technology adoption, and the exciting potential of AI.

Watch the interview below, or listen to the podcast here.

 

Capability Spotlight: Addressing Obsolescence

A dependable source of quality parts supply is critical to maintain safe, reliable, and profitable operation of industrial facilities. However, aging equipment and pressure on the global supply chain have created a challenging environment in the replacement parts.

Obsolescence and loss of supplier experience have resulted in many plants rethinking the idea that the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) should be the go-to source for parts supply. Consolidation of OEMs and retirement and down-sizing on the supplier side have led to loss of capability, compromised quality, and slower response times. Ordering parts through the OEM is also a highly transactional process that rarely engages engineering. Without engineering involvement, there is no opportunity to determine if new technology or design improvements are available that can improve the reliability of the component.

Hydro helps end users meet the challenges of obsolescence with hard-earned reverse engineering expertise, an extensive library of parts drawings across OEMs, a global engineering network, and a dedicated parts division that delivers industry-leading turnaround times for cast components.

When sourcing an alternative for quality parts, it is important to understand that reverse engineering goes beyond simple replication and must engage an experienced engineering team. Advanced technologies can help significantly in the process of reverse engineering critical parts, but relying on these technologies alone is not enough to ensure proper design and manufacture. Geometry, metallurgy, hardness, tolerances, and coatings should all be considered and they add to the complexity of the reverse engineering process. Reproducing the part without reviewing the hydraulic, mechanical, and material characteristics of the component can lead to incorrect geometry or failure of the part when placed in service.

Hydro’s reverse engineering procedures ensure that a comprehensive engineering review is completed during the reverse engineering process. We are also able to leverage our library of known failure mechanisms and proven solutions to improve component design and performance.

Read about how Hydro helps end users overcome the challenges of obsolescence and other supply chain challenges in our case studies with Nuclear Engineering International here and here.

Discover our Hydro’s Parts Solutions division here.