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Fred Hooper — Sun, 15 Jun 2014 17:46:14 -0000

Trapo — Predictive Maintenance for Steam Traps

Steam$$ — Steam Distribution Efficiency

These programs reduce the costs and hassles of maintaining a steam distribution system.

Note: We will be modifying and importing descriptive and explanatory material from
http://www.trapo.com/ as other commitments permit. In the meantime, there is a Help file included with each Setup package.

Background:
Trapo was created to support RG when he became responsible for maintaining the 6,000 steam traps in a U.S. Navy facility. The previous person was replaced when proved unable to to do it - and returned to using a wrench; RG wanted to avoid that outcome. He did.

RG had decades of experience as a steam fitter, plus licenses in a number of other trades. The facility had an annual-bidding process with the work performed by the successful outside contractor - including asbestos abatement related to trap replacement. Therefore, the starting objective was to support that environment.

From the beginning we wanted to avoid trap testing because it is expensive, so we looked for a way to measure the operating life of a trap. This led to out unique trap attributes DUTY, %USE and APPlication:

DUTY cycles are Continuous, Seasonal and Intermittent. The latter two are unique to each facility.
%USE is how much the trap is fed steam while they are "on duty". For example, if the steam to a trap is controlled by a thermostat its %USE might be 30-50%.
APPlication type is Drip, Fin Tube, Large coil for HVAC, Process, Radiator, Small coil for HVAC, Tracer Line and Unit Heater. We find that identical traps have different lives in these applications.

These are used, with the installation date of the traps, to calculate their working life.

Home modified by Fred Hooper

Fred Hooper — Tue, 27 May 2014 17:23:28 -0000

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