Creating a high-quality product requires more than luck—it demands careful planning and the right tools. Every component, from the raw materials to the equipment used, plays a critical role in ensuring success. It starts with selecting the best materials, building an efficient facility, and utilizing top-tier equipment.
But even the best equipment won’t last forever. Over time, wear and tear take their toll, which makes it essential to monitor and maintain machinery to avoid disruptions in your operation.
Replacing or upgrading equipment, however, isn’t always a simple task. Large, specialized machinery, like shell and tube heat exchangers, can have long lead times. Waiting for essential equipment can cause significant delays, making proactive planning essential. Here are a few strategies to help streamline the process and minimize downtime.
Know When You’ll Need Replacements
You don’t need to be a fortune teller to predict when equipment might need replacing. Keeping track of the age, condition, and expected lifespan of your machinery will give you a solid idea of when to plan for upgrades or replacements. While it’s important to know the average lifespan of your equipment, remember that factors like usage, environment, and build quality can affect performance, so regular inspections are key. The older your equipment, the more frequently you should inspect it to catch signs of wear early.
Develop an Ordering Schedule
Once you have a general idea of when your equipment may need replacing, it’s smart to create a schedule for ordering new parts or machinery. This allows you to budget accordingly and plan ahead, so you can place orders well before equipment failures occur. By staying proactive, you’ll minimize downtime and avoid the costly delays that come with waiting for critical parts to arrive.
Communicating your needs with your equipment supplier is also essential. By keeping them informed, they can provide you with accurate lead times and production schedules, ensuring that you’re never caught off guard.
Plan for the Unexpected
While planning can help avoid many issues, unexpected problems can still arise. Equipment can fail suddenly, and when it does, quick action is necessary to minimize downtime. Having an emergency budget in place and spare parts on hand will help you recover faster. Additionally, working with a reliable equipment manufacturer who can respond quickly in an emergency can make all the difference.
Build Strong Partnerships
In any industry, strong relationships with trusted suppliers are invaluable. Over time, a reliable partner will gain a deep understanding of your specific needs and processes, making collaboration smoother and more efficient. When it comes to ordering specialized equipment like shell and tube heat exchangers, having a dependable partner ensures that you’re well-supported throughout the process.
If you’re unsure of how to plan for future equipment needs or want advice on reducing lead times, the engineers at Enerquip are ready to help. Contact us today to streamline your operations and stay ahead of the curve.
The helpful heat exchanger experts at Enerquip have been designing and fabricating shell and tube heat exchangers for our customers’ production plants since 1985.
The Enerquip team is passionate about not only building heat exchangers, but building the best heat exchanger solutions for our customers. Enerquip’s culture is built around integrity. Our team is never done learning, never done growing, and never satisfied with “good enough”.
GENERON is the world leader in the design and manufacture of custom process air and gas separation systems including nitrogen generators for onshore and offshore platforms, floating production, storage and offloading units and transport tankers for the oil & gas market. GENERON has an expanded product base which includes primary compression, instrument air and post compression packages.
GENERON can design and manufacture standard systems or custom engineered packages. For over 40 years, GENERON has provided thousands of systems worldwide to the oil and gas, marine, and industrial service industries that meet stringent customer and third-party society specifications. GENERON® systems are designed for all areas of classification, from Safe to Hazardous Areas, Class I Division 2, Zone 1 and 2, potentially explosive atmospheres, CE / PED, as well as other European standards.
GENERON has a wide variety of clients that require nitrogen generation systems, including drilling and service contractors like Schlumberger, Weatherford, and Halliburton; engineering companies like Alliance Engineering, Wood Group, McDermott, Fluor, and Petrofac; and major oil companies like Exxon-Mobil, Shell, Chevron, Total, and British Petroleum.
High Expectations
GENERON’S dedicated research and development team in California is constantly working to improve product offerings.
Most recently, the GENERON® Dehydration Hollow Fiber Membrane, was re-developed to reduce the weight and size of overall systems, while maintaining instrument quality air. Innovations like this, along with the complete GENERON® product line, continue to elevate the standards and expectations of clients.
GENERON’s facilities in Houston, Texas and Pittsburg, California allow the hands-on monitoring of quality control while delivering the most cost effective products. Both are certified by certified by DNV to ISO-9000 standards, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Pressure Equipment Directive, GOST, and Underwriters Laboratories and the Canadian Standards Association. High quality and high standards are expected from not only their company, but the companies they partner with.
For nearly a decade, GENERON has trusted Enerquip to provide stainless steel shell and tube heat exchangers for these systems. GENERON turns to Enerquip multiple times a year to fulfill the needs and expectations of a growing customer base. The shell and tube heat exchangers Enerquip develops are integral in the nitrogen generation and natural gas compression and processing packages. GENERON relies on the high standards and integrity of Enerquip’s products and services to fulfill this need.
Industry Standards
GENERON relies on Enerquip’s commitment to meet all necessary compliance standards. Enerquip produces shell and tube heat exchangers that are code compliant and follow the regulations set by the Tubular Exchanger Manufacturers Association (TEMA’s) Classes B, C and R; the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME); the Pressure Equipment Directive; the Ministry of Manpower; 3-A; as well as the codes set forth by the American National Standards Institute. Enerquip also fabricates to American Petroleum Institute (API) and Canadian Standards Association (CSA) standards. Enerquip is able to produce heat exchangers that are customized to GENERON customers’ specific needs. Many have unique requirements for various sizes, models and capacities. While many other shell and tube heat exchanger suppliers provide standard pieces of equipment, Enerquip is able to tailor each product to the unique applications for which it will be used. This is because Enerquip has in-house engineers who develop solutions for GENERON’s clients’ needs.
“We often require more customized equipment,” explained Sergio Gonzalez, the Americas Sales Director at GENERON.
“That’s why we turn to Enerquip. They have the engineering and manufacturing capabilities and facilities.”
Enerquip can produce shell and tube heat exchangers ranging from two inches to four feet in diameter, and it has access to a variety of alloys with which to create the equipment. Using the right material is important to GENERON’s clients to ensure the longest lifespan of the equipment as possible. Using the wrong metal can cause corrosion or won’t be able to withstand the pressure or other conditions of the operations.
Quick Turn-Around and On-Time Delivery
Delivery time is another key factor GENERON appreciates. Enerquip prides itself on providing fast deliveries to clients for whom time is a critical factor. GENERON clients sometimes need to put in rushed deliveries for various systems that GENERON provides. However, the company cannot deliver unless it works with a supplier that can provide them with the necessary equipment in a short period of time. Gonzalez explained that even when GENERON clients need a system to be expedited, Enerquip is eager to accommodate the short time frame whenever possible.
GENERON also values the time Enerquip takes to answer questions and give feedback about various products and orders. Gonzalez explained the contact person he has at Enerquip, Shane Viergutz, is always available to talk and is helpful.
“Every time I call them, even if it’s after hours, he answers the phone or returns my calls,” Gonzalez said.
Sometimes GENERON’s customers need a heat exchanger but don’t need a full system for gas compression, production or processing. Other times, they’ll indicate they need an exchanger or system for an application that GENERON doesn’t specialize in. In these instances, Gonzalez explained, he steers them directly to Enerquip. This is because he knows Enerquip’s engineers will be able to work with them to create the right solution for their needs.
“I’ve recommended Enerquip to some of my clients when they only need the heat exchanger, or when it’s not our market,” he said. “When they are working on a different application that we are not directly involved with, I send them directly to Enerquip.”
In getting connected with GENERON’s trusted supplier, the clients know GENERON is looking out for their best interests and will help them succeed in the future.
GENERON plans to continue working with Enerquip for years to come. The company knows Enerquip and its engineers are dependable, efficient, and will work hard to create the best solution for the many systems GENERON provides to its clients.
Simply put, said Gonzalez, “Overall, Enerquip gives good service to us, good products, and good quality.”
When your reputation is on the line, you can trust Enerquip to provide the quality, performance and on-time delivery that you need to keep your shell and tube exchanger project on track.
Enerquip, a homegrown company that specializes in a wide variety of shell and tube heat exchangers, recently broke ground on construction of facility improvements to meet its plans for continued growth.
Enerquip has been one of the leading providers of heating and cooling equipment for production plants and the OEM’s and system integrators that support them. The company crafts stainless steel and high alloy shell and tube heat exchangers of the highest quality, with delivery lead-times that are half of the industry standard. The size of Enerquip heat exchangers can vary from the length of a loaf of bread to the size of a school bus.
The new additions to the facility will include an expanded and remodeled office area, allowing enough room for 10 new employees. The facility has also installed building-wide Wi-Fi, which will allow employees to use state-of-the-art video meeting screens to remotely review projects with clients from their conference rooms.
“We wanted Enerquip to make a better first impression on our customers, and to be a place that our employees are proud to come to work,” said Jeannie Deml, President & CEO.
Enerquip also gave the facility a facelift, and the building underwent some light construction to add more windows throughout the facility to allow access to additional natural light. The facility increased its shop floor space by 25 percent by adding vertical storage racks, which didn’t require the company to add on to the building.
“With the additional space and updated facilities, Enerquip will be able to serve customers more efficiently, increase production throughput and volume, and blend better with the surrounding neighborhood,” said Tim Strebig, Plant Manager.
The indoor renovations are planned to be complete for staff to move in by the end of January, 2015. Exterior improvements and landscaping are scheduled for completion in the Spring of 2015.
About Enerquip
For more than 40 years, Enerquip has been a top designer and fabricator of stainless steel and high alloy shell and tube heat exchangers, with a reputation for quality and fast delivery. The company is one of the most trusted in the industry and provides both custom and standard off-the-shelf solutions for heating and cooling applications. Enerquip serves markets such as the pharmaceutical, beverage, brewing, food processing, dairy, paper, chemical, waste water and renewable fuels industries.
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