Ravi Jethra is Industry Manager - Power & Water with WIKA USA. He has over 2 decades of experience working in varied & diverse roles in Application Engineering, & Product Management focused on Utilities. Prior experience roster includes Tata Power , Emerson India, Honeywell ,SOR & Endress Hauser with geography spread over India, Middle East & North America. He holds an MBA from Arizona State University and B.Eng (Instrumentation) from University of Mumbai, India. He currently lives in Washington DC Metro area with his family, and spare time pursuits include hiking, & Pokemon'ing (Level 39/40).

Neglecting instrumentation puts plant safety, productivity and profitability at risk. A malfunctioning instrument may lead to leaks, fugitive emissions or even fires. But even more likely, malfunctioning or improper instrumentation handicaps a plant from identifying larger issues that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars , if not millions. During an instrument audit field survey, the engineers document instrument/ gauge installations that have failed, or are at risk of failure in an effort to identify areas of concern for the facility.

During an instrument audit / field survey, the engineers document instrument /gauge installations that have failed, or are at risk of failure in an effort to identify areas of concern for the facility. With all instruments that are recorded, there is a large degree of variation in regards to connections, mountings, wetted materials, liquid-filling, pressure ranges, and manufacturers. This variation allows for simplification that will enable the facility to determine what is really needed. With this data, the engineers create recommendations to suit each site’s needs.

The field survey team, with guidance from the end-user representative, walks through the process units in a logical sequence. Instruments are visually inspected; and recorded for follow-up action if necessary.

The presentation is essentially sharing results based on findings and experience from the field instrument surveys/audits at numerous water/wastewater (municipal ) facilities across North America , as also reviewing the best practices from a field installation / operations perspective (specifically as it relates to pressure instruments). Given the complexity of the instrument installations, there are significant opportunities for improving device performance and consolidating the population by standardizing on certain features. Factors relating to potential causes of failure as well as possible steps that could be taken to mitigate and/or improve instrument life are discussed.