Boiler and machinery engineering

Boiler and machinery equipment breakdown can cripple plant operations or product quality. Machinery is often complex and getting replacements or parts can be difficult due to supply chain delays or other issues. Machinery breakdown can cause significant downtime, leading to lost market share and reduced revenue.

Risk managers must keep business going and take preventative measures to identify and mitigate risks of machinery breakdown. They can do this by evaluating critical path assets, implementing preventative and predictive maintenance programs, attaining spare parts, and developing contingency plans.

As an independent third-party Global Risk Consultants Corp can help prevent machinery breakdown by identifying incipient “issues” before they turn into big, expensive problems. Our boiler and machinery (B&M) engineering services help operations and maintenance teams refocus and better consider the possibilities for low-frequency, high-impact events. Our risk consultants assess machinery breakdown exposures and provide recommendations to mitigate or control the risks.

Boiler explosions and the force they produce can be catastrophic. Injuries and death can occur when a machinery breakdown takes place. According to the National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspections, even a home hot water tank, if overheated, can send a car flying 14 stories at 137 kilometers per hour. Larger, jurisdictional boilers and pressure vessels can produce forces of even greater strength. 

Protecting against losses becomes even more important amid disciplined underwriting and high rate increases for property insurance, including boiler and machinery insurance. Not only can a machinery breakdown loss be expensive and disrupt business, it can also lead to higher insurance premiums. But showing underwriters that you have identified and addressed machinery breakdown losses can help companies and their brokers gain the best possible boiler and machinery insurance placements. 

The knowledge loss from experienced workers retiring or job-hopping is a further challenge. This often leaves a knowledge gap that can lead to human-caused failures. Companies must implement better training and safety procedures to transfer knowledge from experienced workers while helping to ensure that newer workers do not inadvertently damage equipment or cause accidents.

Post-loss mitigation is important consideration. When boiler and machinery equipment breakdown events occur, adequate protection mechanisms such as electrical protection, turbine overspeed protection and boiler controls should be in place to prevent such a situation from escalating. An assessment of the adequacy of protection features for critical machinery is therefore a key part of any B&M survey.

Routine testing of protection systems and features used in conjunction with critical machinery is an important step in mitigating the consequences of machinery breakdowns. Such testing should be conducted in accordance with established industry best practices and be further informed by actual experience in the facility. The testing frequency of a given protection system depends on the known level of reliability of the system or the device.

In many B&M-related events, the impact of property damage can exceed adverse consequences stemming from business interruption. The post-loss consequential impact of an adverse event can be mitigated by ensuring that inventories of critical spare parts are adequate and readily available.

At the same time, building cost-effective spare parts inventories is not always a simple exercise. If this goes wrong, an operation can tie up millions of dollars in capital that may never be used, while neglecting more critical investments.

One way to address this is to work with other companies who have similar operations and equipment requirements to collectively pool essential spare parts. In some cases, partnering with third parties may even make it viable to procure spare parts and equipment requiring large capital investments (such as power plant generators). 

Once you decide to invest in an inventory of critical spare parts, it is also imperative to ensure that these parts are reliable and ready for use when needed. Sadly, many companies spend large sums of money on spare parts, place them in a warehouse or field location, and never consider their readiness and reliability until they are needed. They should implement storage and handling procedures for spare parts to ensure their long-term reliability and to help secure the value of the required investment. 

Supply chain delays can complicate the process of recovering from a B&M-related event. The pandemic may be in the rear-view mirror, but it's a good reminder that global supply chains are still prone to disruption from major economic events.

As an experienced B&M risk consultant, Global Risk Consultants Corp can help conduct a thorough assessment of the individual risk factors associated with current protection systems and advise on an approach that reduces risk while also being economically sound.

Global Risk Consultants (GRC) helps you achieve specific loss prevention goals and objectives for critical equipment including boilers, deaerators, pressure equipment and more. 

Our machinery breakdown risk assessments support you in developing action plans to control losses and avoid boiler and machinery equipment breakdowns, while enabling you to identify, track and trend specific concerns. In addition to concentrating your resources on critical needs, we identify ways to improve operational efficiencies. 

TÜV SÜD has experts across the globe who hold experience in a wide variety of industries. We tailor our B&M services to meet the needs of your business, considering safety concerns, hazards, occupancies, regulatory requirements, and more.

Risk assessment / Loss control analysis – We analyse facilities’ production, process operations and utility systems to identify and quantify loss exposures. For every site visit, we deliver a loss prevention report with loss estimates and underwriting information. The valuable data belongs to the client and is available in our recommendation dashboards on GRC Connect. Using this data, you can choose the right boiler and machinery insurance and risk programs for you.

Complete evaluations and development of risk-based programmes – We provide on-site evaluation of preventive and predictive maintenance programs (such as vibration monitoring, infrared imagery, mechanical and dielectric oil analysis programs, etc.). We also provide on-site evaluations of critical (bottleneck) production and utility equipment (electrical, cooling and refrigeration, natural gas supplies, etc.), spare part management programs, contingency plans, etc.

Mechanical integrity and code compliance evaluations – We support your needs with a combination of specialised loss control engineers and our jurisdictional services group. Our experts implement industry-specific mechanical Integrity programs and assist with compliance requirements.

Pressure vessel inspection and repair assessments – Our boiler and machinery engineering programme concentrates on the preventive and predictive aspects of pressure vessels and evaluation of original thickness and operating criteria, non-destructive test methods, frequency of inspection, results and operating life expectancy. Mechanical integrity and code compliance are additional services that we have the capacity to offer as needed.

Training opportunities – In addition to inspection services, we offer a variety of in-person and online training opportunities designed to help businesses mitigate risks and stay up to date on the latest techniques, regulations, and more.