Operating With a Broken Pinion Teeth

Abstract

There was a failure in the gear box of the main feed pump of the hydrocracker unit. As no spare was available, there was no immediate fix to the failure. A quick evaluation of the damage to the gear was done and an interim measure was taken to use back the old damaged pinion shaft. A successful risk based repair and restoration plan developed jointly with OEM support, until the new spare gear set was made available. The paper highlights on the ways the risks were managed during this interim period and share the observations during this interim operation.