Life Extension Strategies, Condition or Risk Based Assessment; A Pulp & Paper Industry Material Engineer’s Point of View, 2006 Engineering, Pulping, & Environmental Conference

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“Life Extension” gets thrown about liberally with promises of reduced operating costs as old equipment continues in service long after its “design life” period. Materials engineers in the pulp and paper industry have worked for decades with plant maintenance engineers to slow down the ravages of “process” time on critical equipment. Mostly this focus has been on individual critical equipment like digesters using what is called “condition assessment”. With recent cross-fertilization of thought from the petroleum industry the use of a wider ranging, statistically based method called “risk-based assessment” is being discussed. This paper compares and contrasts these two strategies for use in the paper industry and will hopefully lay the groundwork for a discussion in the conference session.