Safe cost-effective performance of physical assets is vitally important for a range of industries including oil & gas, defence, utilities, chemicals and transport.
AZTech, through its very experienced Associate Consultants, offer organizations the following services:
Machines deteriorate as they get older so we can expect a certain amount of performance falloff and general deterioration of the machine. If we understand the failure mechanisms through various vibration and other monitoring techniques that are in place we can identify which parameters best indicate the deterioration of the machine and give advance warning of impending failure.
Failure analysis and Predictive Maintenance techniques, including vibration analysis is available with a view to optimising the maintenance engineering effort while maximising production. Further consultancy is available in the form of maintenance management optimisation and audits of existing systems.
AZTech, through its highly experienced, knowledgeable and qualified consultants, offers organisations the following services:
AZTech through Associate Consultants has acquired Qualifications and Experience in the field of Safety Technology. We can produce Safety Concept and detailed fire hazard analysis during the design or modification stages of the plant for each area of the installation.
The following tasks may be performed:
Emergency Management and Planning is an essential element of modern HSE Management Systems. Although the majority of accidents should be proactively prevented by risk assessment & risk management, there is a need to think the unthinkable. Therefore, organisations need to demonstrate that, in the case of a major accident, there are measures in place; to respond, to prevent escalations and to mitigate the consequences of such events. Training in any level of scenario from a simple false alarm to a full-scale emergency (worst case scenario), involving casualties, fatalities and eventual site abandonment can be re-enacted, creating a high pressure environment that can be used as a training tool which will successfully assess a manager's ability and Emergency Response Team member's ability to take effective command and control of an accident.
AZTech, through its very experienced Associate Consultants, offer organisations the following services:
As with Health and Safety Management, Environmental Management is an essential element in the successful modern business. Improvement in a Company's environmental performance leads to an enhanced corporate reputation, improved regulatory compliance and greater leverage in a competitive market.
AZTech can provide information and advice on the implementation of an environmental management system and the development of internal audit capacity. This facilitation is designed to assist in the delivery of continual improvement in an organisation's environmental performance as well as techniques for the prevention of pollution. These are key elements in achieving certification to ISO 14001.
To improve competitive operation and long term profitability and to improve HSE performance, cost-effective equipment integrity and reliability is essential. The objective of Mechanical Integrity is to ensure equipment does not fail in a way that causes or affects a release of covered chemicals. Technical integrity not only refers to hardware (mechanical and structural) and software issues, but also to human issues - sound people management. The technical integrity of a facility is achieved when, under specified operating conditions, there is no foreseeable risk of failure endangering safety of personnel, environment or asset value. It can only be achieved when: the equipment/piping systems are designed correctly for the specified service conditions; they are operated and maintained by qualified competent people within the design envelope; the current condition of critical equipment is identified/validated and are deemed fit for continued service; and the damage mechanisms they are subjected to are understood, monitored, and their impacts on the remaining life of the respective equipment/components/systems is assessed. Furthermore, risk-based decision methodology must be used to prioritize equipment inspection and maintenance.
Technical integrity is a joint responsibility of Engineering, Operations and Maintenance. Engineering is responsible for defining what constitutes technical integrity (design intent) while Operations and Maintenance are responsible for safeguarding technical integrity. The ongoing link between the three disciplines is the design envelope and the application of an effective management of change (MOC) program. The potential threats to mechanical integrity are in the area of methodology and controls through: application of inappropriate standards; inadequate assessment/control of plant changes; inappropriate condition assessment; deferred or uncontrolled maintenance; and inadequate quality of workmanship.
To achieve a sustainable safe, reliable and cost-effective plant operation, integrated asset management and utilization systems are essential.
AZTech, through its very experienced Associate Consultants, offer organizations integrated and focused services to assist in improving equipment integrity and plant reliability including:
Over the past 30 years, the oil and gas industry has developed into a highly advanced technological field. Whether it in smart drilling equipment or sophisticated natural gas processing in the field, or the advancement of LNG, or the significant developments in refining such as FCC hardware and catalysts, hydrotreating and hydro cracking, or novel alkylation's processes, new knowledge is added at a phenomenal rate
We are now able to utilize every barrel produced with high efficiency in order to maximize the manufacture of final products and profitability, to minimize waste, and improve plant environmental performance.
AZTech, through its very experienced Associate Consultants, offer organisations the following services:
Globalisation has placed increasing demands on modern process control in terms of quality, safety, flexibility and costs. However, although the subject of many hundreds of articles, books, and courses, the basic elements of automatic process control are still widely misunderstood and worse still misapplied. Research carried out by ISA and other bodies indicates that up to 75% of all loops will oscillate when operated in automatic.
Problems range from incorrect sensor placement and over-spanning of the transmitter through to valve hysteresis, stiction and non linearities. And yet hours are often wasted in trying to optimize the controller settings in regard to proportional, integral and derivative actions.
AZTech, through its experienced Associate Consultants, offer organizations a full loop analysis and auditing service. Using advanced software tools we can analyze the loop for critical control performance factors such as control valve performance, process non-linearity and tuning parameters.
Benefits
Process media properties can vary enormously from industry to industry. The fluid may be toxic, flammable, abrasive, radioactive, explosive or corrosive; it may be single-phase (clean gas, water or oil) or multi-phase (e.g. slurries or dust laden gases). The pipe carrying the fluid may vary from less than 1 mm to many metres in diameter. The fluid temperature may vary from close to absolute zero to many hundred degrees Celsius, and the pressure may vary from high vacuum to high pressures.
As a result increasing demands are being made on modern process control in terms of quality, safety, flexibility and costs. However, more efficient control can only be achieved through better measurement when the process instrumentation provides the correct information.
In this regard, AZTech, through its experienced Associate Consultants, offer organizations a full instrumentation audit to evaluate the suitability and applicability of instrumentation and control strategy and the impact on the measurement of critical parameters relevant to the overall design philosophy of the process plant.