Pressure Gauges: Hidden Danger or Visible Safety

In recent years, chemical plants have been required to increase capacity, but have been provided with few upgrades to existing equipment to accommodate the increased capacity requirements. This has caused increased stress and strain on plants’ systems and operating units.

One of the most important, yet unfortunately, most often overlooked keys to success in ensuring the continued safety, productivity and profitability of process plants is the pressure gauge. When used properly, gauges act like alarms to alert users to process issues.

On the other hand, neglecting these gauges can put plant safety, productivity and profitability at risk. A malfunctioning gauge may lead to leaks, fugitive emissions or even fires. WIKA conducted more than 250 Instrument Audits and found that 25% of pressure gauges in a typical plant are failed broken or misapplied. That means that at any given time approximately 8 gauges within 20 feet of workers require corrective action.

While this paper discusses the most common reasons for gauge failure – and how to correct these issues – it also acknowledges that it can be difficult for plant management to devote the time and attention to an effective pressure gauge program. Similarly, it can be difficult for technical personnel to get up-to-speed in terms of education and experience related to pressure gauges. Therefore, it concludes that chemical companies should focus on what they do best and leave peripheral activities to third parties that specialize in these actions. Becoming experts in pressure gauges is certainly not a core competency for chemical plants, so this is an area that can be outsourced to an experienced third party.