Alphatec Engineering recently participated in the Power-Gen Europe exhibition in Milan. We met many interesting potential customers, as well as a few existing clients, and spent the three days of the exhibition listening and talking about the delights of epoxy grouts for installing rotating machinery.
We are always surprised by the fact that so many machinery manufacturers and engineering contractors do not yet use epoxy grouts, despite their history going back to
the 1950s, and the existence of recommendations such as that from the American Petroleum Institute (API RP 686) which states: “Unless otherwise specified, all machinery shall be grouted with epoxy grouts”.
Obviously, we tend to agree with this recommendation, but we are a very interested party. API represents the distilled wisdom of all its members – who do not always agree on specifications – and suggests that the benefits of epoxy grouts are now so well appreciated that there is no practical lower limit for their use.
For many years, oil companies’ specifications (such as existed) tended to say things like “all reciprocating compressors of more than 5,000 HP must be grouted with epoxy grout”, and – much later – “all rotating machinery with an all-up weight of 2,500kg, and a plan area of at least 2m², must be grouted with epoxy grout”. Now there are virtually no exclusions.
So why is a practice which is so widely followed in the oil and gas industry so widely ignored in the power industry? The adoption of best practices can be beneficial, regardless of their field of origin.
For more information please contact Alphatec Engineering.