Equipment engineering

Equipment engineering is a discipline best described as technical creativity. Engineers have the task to think of new concepts and to constantly question and re-think existing concepts.

This is the only way to ensure that the technical concepts are demand-driven rather than the other way round. During this engineering process, the engineer should stay focussed on what really matters, best described as BATNEEC (best available techiques not entailing excessive cost).

Engineers should have the capacity to put themselves in lieu of the client in the broadest sense: What would I want if I were the end-user, investor or authority ? This kind of reflections will lead to using local suppliers and subcontractors so that the client is surrounded by a network of disciplines whom he can call upon when it comes to it. Examples of brand-driven engineering where engineers stick to approved vendor lists are common and although it can look like a sign of quality management at first, it is often counter-productive because it often hinders creative thinking. 

Another very important aspect of equipment engineering in terms of product development is to keep the communication lines short and the company structure very simple and flat.

The salesteam needs to have sufficient engineering knowledge so that the basic conceptual  work is done in communication with the client at the commercial stage and that solutions which would prove to be too complex and/or too expensive at a later stage can be ruled out from the very beginning. 

This way and this way only, the engineered product will be both effective in terms of performances and efficient in terms of profitability to the end user so that it can be rightly called succesful equipment engineering.

We have come across many examples where, even if equipment may be well engineered from a purely technical or scientifc point of view, it proves to be unsuitable to the end-user for a number of reasons and it sadly becomes an example of unsuccesful product development.

The concept of creative thinking can be illustrated by the common problem of (acid dew point -) corrosion, often encountered in industrial plant of this type. From a purely engineering point of view, material selection is the key and that is why high-grade alloys are often used ranging from stainless steel AISI 316 L to Hastalloy C or Avesta 256 Mo grades. These steel grades will generally be suitable but are very expensive and entail a number of other problems during fabrication such as welding and shaping. An alternative here would be to split up between mechanical strength and corrosion resistance and to use two different materials for both issues, which would then be bonded, the concept of polymer linings and a mild steel support.

This requires the engineer to look at the process conditions and to ask the question : can I keep the temperature of the condensing acid compounds within the temperature range for the most common polymer linings ?

An even more fundamental question to ask himself would be : do I really need to have condensing conditions, is there no other way to achieve the same goal for the process ? And in most cases, there is an alternative process that can work just as well if certain process condtions - or limitations are observed.

An example of this is the dry scrubber as an alternative to wet scrubber : mild steel can be used troughout if the temperature of the gases is kept around 200 degC. The scrubbing efficiency is less, but in most cases it will be sufficient as such or can be made adequate with a little more attention to the waste blend being fed.

This way, the alternative process (dry scrubber) can be 'managed' into the application rather than expensive materials being 'engineered' into the process and the client ends up with a simpler, cheaper plant built from materials and components which are commonly available which is a great benefit when it comes to maintenance or replacement of parts.