Bloch, Heinz P.
Heinz P. Bloch resides in Montgomery, Texas. He retired as Exxon Chemical’s Regional Machinery Specialist for the U.S. and has authored or co-written more than 780 publications, among them 23 comprehensive books on practical machinery management, failure analysis, failure avoidance, compressors, steam turbines, pumps, oil mist lubrication and optimized lubrication for industry. Mr. Bloch holds BS and MS degrees (cum laude) in mechanical engineering from the Newark College of Engineering (NCE). He is one of 10 inaugural inductees into NCE’s Hall of Fame, which honors its most distinguished alumni.
Performance benchmarking update: expectations and reality
Here's how first-quartile companies optimize maintenance and improve reliability
HP Reliability: Justification for machine condition monitoring
Continuous operational condition monitoring implies that machine condition data are collected and evaluated in real time. Of special interest here are data that could rapidly change and are tell-tale ..
HP Reliability: Lubricating slow-speed rolling element bearings
A sales engineer visited a customer with different pieces of processing equipment that included an oven. The customer asked a lubrication-related question and received an answer from the sales enginee..
HP Reliability: Counting interventions instead of MTBF
Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to meet a very experienced machinery reliability professional at a refinery in the UK. Among his many tasks was tracking mean-time-between-failures (MTBFs) of..
HP Reliability: Improvements in floating-ring compressor seals
As is so often the case, compressor components undergo design changes as experience accumulates. Over the years, improved floating-ring shaft seals have become key elements in the uptime improvement ..
Pump vibration, rotor balance and effect on bearing life
Rules-of-thumb and experience for optimally scheduling pump overhauls
New floating-ring seals push the 'uptime envelope'
The three-face design handles severe wet-fluid pumping
HP Reliability: Cost justification for advanced steam traps
      Steam traps are found in virtually every industrial steam system. They allow separating steam from condensate and are indispensable for equipment reliability and thermally optimiz..
HP Reliability: Reliable plants are never an afterthought—Part 2
      Last month's column explained that truly world-class petrochemical and refining companies invest roughly 5% of the cost of equipment in pre-purchase reviews and reliability audits..
HP Reliability: Reliable plants are never an afterthought—Part 1
As this column goes to press, two of my colleagues are approaching 60 years of age. That makes them almost a full generation younger than I am, but their careers are just as interesting as mine—..
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