Industrial Fluid Systems Blog

Losing Steam? Send For Our Swagelok Energy Advisors

We'll look at steam generation, distribution, use, and condensate recovery


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Edmonton Valve & Fitting's Energy Advisors conduct a steam system evaluation to give you insight on the current state of your system and provide recommendations to improve performance. Book your evaluation today and let us help you optimize your steam system performance.


When steam is critical to your plant operations, leaks cost money, hurt reliability and compromise safety. On top of all that, it's getting harder to find experts in steam systems operation.

One call to Edmonton Valve & Fitting can solve the problem. We have the experts, and we'll send them to your site for a steam survey. We start with "pre-job" conference to find out what work already has been done on site, and what's still needed. If a plant already has tags identifying all its steam traps, for instance, that will save us a lot of time. If it's a brand new system with no tagging in place, we'll need extra time to learn all the locations. Your steam chief will want to be involved, and probably your reliability engineer.

At this conference we'll ask questions that will help both our teams agree on a set of goals and objectives. During the entire analysis, our evaluation team will work shoulder to shoulder with your team members. When the evaluation is finished, we deliver an in-depth report that documents calculated cost factors, installation cost estimates, energy savings calculations and payback estimates.  Our roadmap is a practical plan that helps you easily translate recommendations into implemented changes. 

Detailed inspection

Our steam system evaluation program looks at all four key parts of the steam system: generation, distribution, steam-consuming equipment and condensate recovery. When we're done, we'll give you a list of solutions and recommendations that pay for themselves in terms of improved productivity, efficiency and reliability. We'll separate the near-term needs from longer-term considerations. While some of those might involve spending some capital, many require little or no cost to implement.

Our recommendations will cover:

  • Safety and/or code issues that must be corrected immediately
  • Cost savings and/or performance upgrades with ROI in 18 months or less
  • Cost savings and/or performance upgrade with ROI in 24 months or less
  • Cost savings and/or performance upgrade with ROI in 36 months or less
  • Best practices that aren't necessarily associated with cost savings

We also offer a Steam Trap Station Management Program with a goal of reducing steam trap failure rates to 3 percent or less. We'll test the traps, analyze the root cause of any failures, make sure they are properly sized, and check the isolation and check valves.

Attitude

Once you have our reports, you'll have a road map for making repairs and upgrades. In our experience, we've found that the plants with the right mindset have the highest success rates with their steam systems. They are always thinking about how to make improvements. Unlike some other aspects of life, dealing with big problems in steam systems does not mean that the little problems will take care of themselves.

But that mindset is not universal. We've seen some scary sights on our steam surveys. We've seen water hammer that was so bad it almost shook you. We've seen makeshift solutions that only addressed the symptoms and not the cause of the problem. Fortunately, once they see the benefits of our steam survey, we often see them adopt a better way of thinking.

The places that commit to the whole program will see the greatest advantage.

There's no reason why your plant has to lose steam. Set up an appointment through our website or by calling 780-437-0640.


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