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EVENT REPORTED by SAM GUARD®

Detected a sudden raise in the manipulated value of a flow control valve.
The tubulation is the hydrochloric acid inlet on the top of a purification column. Normally the valve opening was around 30% to have the desired flow, when suddenly the valve starts opening to 100% returning the same process value as before with no SP change.


MAINTENANCE TEAM FINDINGS

After SAM GUARD ® alert, plant team conducted an investigation on-site and it was found that the hydrochloric acid flow meter was plugging.
As the column is an important unit operation to the product’s purification step, a non-expected stop in the flow would have affected the quality of the product.

COST / DOWNTIME AVOIDED

SAM GUARD® alert prevented leading with major problems related to the quality of the product.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK

“This event helped prevent an issue that could impact in the quality of the product.”