Machinery, foundation

Most turbomachinery is mounted on structural steel platforms sometimes referred to as base plates or skids. These platforms are then installed on a mass of concrete at the jobsite (either by direct grouting or mounting on sole plates) to become the machinery foundation. Platforms should always be considered as part of the foundation rather than as part of the machinery. 

Wang Ping, Shen Xiaoyang. Mechanical engineering machinery foundation series practice teaching reform of the course. J Coll Educ Technol. 2005 24 57-8. 

Also see API Recommended Practice 686/PIP REIE 686 for minimum edge distance recommendations for machinery foundations. 

The base should be sufficiently strong to withstand the machinery weight and minimize vibrations. Five times the mass is the rule. If the pump, motor, and base plate weighs 1,000 lbs, the foundation should weigh at least 5,000 lbs. 

The natural structural frequencies of most large systems are also in the low-frequency range, and care must be exercised to avoid resonant couplings between the structure and the foundation. The excitation in rotating machinery comes from rotating unbalanced masses. These unbalances result from four factors ... 

Charts are available to convert from one type of measurement to another as shown in Figure 19-13. Many of these charts also show approximate vibration limits. The charts demonstrate the independence of velocity measurements relative to frequency, except at very low and very high frequencies where the amplitude limits are constant throughout the operating speed range. These limits are approximate—the type of machinery, casing, foundation, and bearings must be considered to determine final vibration limits. 

Characterized by high frequency response, accelerometers are compact and rugged, ideal for mounting on machinery cases, foundations, piping, etc. Applications to gear trains and rolling element bearings are typical. 

If the plant engineer is a specialist in anything, it is in his/her own plant or facility. Plant engineers must learn to know their own plants thoroughly, from the geology underlying its foundations and the topology of the rainwater runoff to the distribution of its electricity and the eccentricities of its production machinery. They must ensure the quality of the environment both inside... 

Depending upon size and type of unit, the mounting may vary from simply bolting to the floor to attaching to a massive foundation designed specifically for the application. A proper foundation must (1) maintain the alignment and level of the compressor and its driver at the proper elevation, and (2) minimize vibration and prevent its transmission to adjacent building structures and machinery. There are five steps to accomplish the first objective ... 

More than most of us can hope for, Williams life was also filled with extraordinary gifts and accomplishments. For over 20 years he and his co-workers worked to discover, isolate, characterize and synthesize the substance he named pantothenic acid, an essential cog in the biochemical machinery of all living things. He also first concentrated and named folic acid, another B vitamin. As founder and director of the Clayton Foundation Biochemical Institute at the University of Texas at Austin from 1940 to 1963, he and his colleagues made many other notable contributions to nutrition and biochemistry. 

One of the most important aspects in structural design for the process industries is a correct foundation design with allowances for heavy equipment and vibrating machinery used. The purpose of the foundation is to distribute the load so that excessive or damaging settling will not occur. The type of foundation depends on the load involved and the material on which the foundation acts. It... 

Internationale Federation der WiderstandskSmpfer (ed.), Die SS-Henker und ihre Opfer, self-pub., Vienna 1965, p. 17 J.-C. Pressac, Auschwitz Technique and Operation of the Gas Chambers, Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, New York 1989, pp. 422, 424 J.-C. Pressac, Les Crematoires d Auschwitz, la Machinerie du meurtre de masse, Editions de CNRS, Paris 1993, Doc. 57 G. Schoenbemer, Der gelbe Stem, Rutten und Loening, Hamburg 1960, p. 162. 

Jean-Claude Pressac, Auschwitz Technique and Operation of the Gas Chambers, Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, New York 1989 similar in his later bookies crematoires d Auschwitz La machinerie du meurtre de masse, CNRS Editions, Paris, 1993. 

In a normal situation the civil works (foundations, building, etc.) are usually completed before work commences on the erection of machinery. 

Grouts are materials which permanently maintain the original level and alignment of machinery or equipment and transfer all loads to the foundation when shims and other temporary position devices are removed. A grout is a fluid material in an uncured state which subsequently hardens... 

These figures are more conservative than those often quoted, and the residual values are higher. Experience indicates that used-up machinery ordinarily finds a market at second-hand prices considerably above those prevailing for junk material. Negative residual values are possible. The hfe of items like foundations is limited by that of the associated equipment. If A = amount to be realized to offset depreciation = initial cost—residual value, n = estimated life, r = rate of interest, S = annual depreciation charge, then... 

In the previous subsection, we used the example of diffusion to illustrate the proliferation of temporal scales in one of the central problems in the study of materials. The present discussion has a similar aim in that we will briefly review fhe features of plasticity that place modeling demands at many different spatial scales. Though plasticity is also an area of immense importance, the conceptual foundations for its analysis both at the macroscopic level as well as from a reductionist perspective are not nearly as mature as is the study of diffusion. Recall that at the macroscopic scale in the context of diffusion we have the time-honored diffusion equation while at the microseopic scale we have the machinery of transition state theory as the basis of a well-defined scheme for informafion passage. By way of contrast, the macroscopic equations of plasticity are not nearly as robust as the diffusion equafion and there is no clear path for... 

Support foundations Stability, support, and flexibility are necessary standards for foundations that support tractable machinery. For example, pumps used to move massive amounts of liquids and solids require a foundation that will support their weight and movement. While conventional concrete provides support, it does not allow for flexibility in movement. RubCon s unique elastic properties satisfy both criteria. 

Conceptually gene therapy involves the repair or correction of the machinery, as it were, that is at the very foundation of genetically induced diseases. Genetic diseases arise because a defective gene does not turn on a specific protein. In genetically induced cancers, however, the opposite may occur. That is, a gene that normally suppresses abnormal cell production is defective and fails to do so. This allows uncontrolled cell proliferation in essence, a malignancy. 

Note The foundations for a building housing heavy, vibrating machinery, such as steam hammers, shears, and grinding equipment, should receive some allowance for possible compression and rearrangements of soil owing to the vibrations transmitted through it. 

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