Increasing the Steam Boiler Maintainability Adopted Design Factors

Abstract

Companies are increasingly compelled to evaluate all dimensions of product performance in order to maintain competitiveness in the face of global market challenges. Maintainability is a crucial aspect of product performance. Maintainability refers to a product's economical and efficient ability to undergo maintenance. Maintenance is necessary for the proper functioning and longevity of several durable items. Adopting maintainability design factors during the first stages of the design process can reduce maintenance expenses, minimize maintenance time, and enhance safety measures. In this paper, the steam boiler is studied and how to improve its maintainability through design factors to make it more maintainable. In order to reduce the time required to perform maintenance and thus reduce the system's downtime and make it available for a longer time, thus increasing production. The case study adopted in this paper is the steam boiler of the thermal power plant in south Baghdad. A study of the steam boiler was conducted, and maintainability was calculated according to the data obtained from the station. A part of the boiler was chosen to improve its maintainability, which is the air heater, as it is the most essential part due to its frequent malfunctions. A study was conducted on the air heater and its parts. The overhead crane was developed by suggestion into an improved design as a tool for accessibility, considered an important design factor for ease of access and handling and, at the same time, for the safety of maintenance workers. This improvement reduced from 24 to 48 hours of repair time for each fault, and the results after calculating the maintainability of the steam boiler after the improvement showed that it increased from 48.5% to 53.5%, i.e., an increase of 5%.