Harris Pye appoints Senior Metallurgist to maximise Boiler Components' Life

Nov. 18, 2011 - PRLog -- The design phase of the boiler sees materials selected on the basis of the design criteria, but in ‘real life’, operating outside design conditions, compromises the residual lifetime of the constituent components, ultimately leading to their premature failure. It is, therefore, essential to estimate the remaining lifetime of the components in order to maximise the value of the initial investment, whilst avoiding catastrophic failures.

Gaining an understanding of the remaining lifetime enables expensive unplanned outages to be avoided, whilst maximising the remaining safe working life of the boiler. In order to meet the market demand for this service, the Harris Pye Group is developing techniques for both assessing and extending the life of existing facilities. In order to facilitate the correlation of metallurgical deterioration with specific boiler operating practices the company has appointed Dr Dave Mumford as Senior Metallurgist, an appointment that marks the move of the group’s expansion of the Technical Services Division, which is being led by Principal Thermal Design Engineer, Dave Parsons.

Harris Pye recognises that advancements in metallurgical technology and analysis techniques have enabled the life of steam generating equipment to be extended well beyond their original design life. Dr Mumford’s appointment brings this cutting edge technology to the forefront of operations and ensures that Harris Pye continues to offer its clients the highest level of service.

“We are extremely pleased to welcome Dave to our ever-expanding team, we can certainly promise him a challenging time,” says Mark Prendergast, Managing Director of the Harris Pye Group. “Until now we have bought in metallurgical services. Having our own in-house expertise enables us to offer added value to clients – and with additional speed, always a crucial element for us. He will be working on challenges posed to him from throughout our global network on boilers, tubing, ship and rig refurbishment, and many other tasks.”

About Dr Mumford and his role
A Professional Graduate Member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (IOMMM), and a Member of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST), Dr Mumford’s role is to work on the development of remnant life assessment and life extension strategies, and metallurgical assessment of critical components. He will also be developing new NDE (non-destructive examination) techniques; materials selection – including the introduction of new materials such as Martensitic stainless steel and on failure analysis.

Having worked previous at Alstom Switzerland as a Product Qualification Engineer, and Corus RD&T as a Research Engineer, Dave Mumford, who is based at the Barry, South Wales, headquarters of the Harris Pye Group, says he is particularly looking forward to: “Working on challenging global projects with a variety of people from diverse backgrounds.”

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Established more than 30 years ago & built a reputation as one of the world's leading specialists in repair of marine and industrial boilers, including associated steam systems. Operating throughout the globe, our emphasis is on cost effective repair.