For a batch process plant like Brandenburg, the average lifespans of various components of equipment can be difficult to predict. But when it came to the mechanical seals used to prevent hazardous material leaks at their rotating shafts, it wasn’t hard to notice the significant maintenance times and costs as a result of their failures. So in 2015, their team embarked on a concerted effort toward expanding the lifespan of these seals — and it paid off big time.

“When a piece of equipment like a mechanical seal fails, there’s a lot of expense that goes into its replacement,” Danny Williams, Reliability Manager for Brandenburg, explained. “You not only have the cost of the replacement, the clean up, and the preparation, but you also have the cost of unplanned downtime and lost production. We had gotten a little complacent with this process and the frequency of  failures, but it was time to make its enhancement a priority.”

So the journey to improve the Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) and reduce unplanned events began. The sitewide effort led by Danny’s Reliability Team started with the regular site visits of the North American Reliability Specialist, digging into the most commonly replaced seals. Services of a a well-known pump and seal manufacturer were also employed. 

“We analyzed the most troublesome seals and really honed in on what was causing their failures,” Danny shared. “In many cases, it was due to the way the equipment was being run. In others, we realized the ability to use different materials of construction  that would perform better based on each given application.”

Over the course of several years, the site collaborated across functions — from maintenance and operations hourly personnel to managers, engineers, and supervisors— to observe and improve installation, operation, and repair practices, identify issues in the plant, implement best practices, and encourage continuing efforts.

In addition to significant changes in regard to the production and operating procedures along with added power controls and updated dual seals, the team also improved all areas of maintenance to reinforce these upgrades. They developed pump and agitator check sheets to ensure consistency in repair methods, began conducting personnel training, conducting precision shaft alignments, and implemented a route-based vibration program for critical equipment to catch issues prior to failure.

“All of these improvements would not have been possible without plant personnel at all levels working together to eliminate the causes of failures,” Danny said. “With four distinct units across the plant, it’s not uncommon to be siloed in a lot of our responsibilities. But when we started seeing the results of our performance improvements as a collective group, employee feedback drastically improved, and everyone was eager to keep it going.”

And those wins were hard for anyone to ignore. Thanks to the plant-wide effort, the site was able to end 2022 with an average MTBF of nearly 110 months — increasing the average seal life from about 2.5 years to 9+ years.

“Each of these efforts have made such a difference in our operations,” Danny explained. “The MTBF may only be measured in months, but when you have 550 of these mechanical seals in the plant, imagine the expenses of these failing every 2.5 years; we have made incredible strides in terms of cost savings and site efficiency. It’s been a major win for the entire Monument Brandenburg team!”