A Study on The Control Value and Regular Preventive Maintenance to Improve Stream Boiler Efficiency and Safety

Author: Iloka Benneth Chiemelie
Published: 17th of February 2015

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

The basic description of boilers is any fuel-burning appliance that has the ability of producing either steam or hot water that is then circulated through pipes for either process usage or for heating purposes. Normally, the most common application in modern day can be seen in hotels where they are used to heat water for the guest to have hot bath.

Boiler systems require major financial investment and yet the ways that can be adopted in protecting these investments are very widely. Proper maintenance and operation safety are very necessary in steam boiler system and it is regarded as crucial for increased efficiency and reliability. Without such maintenance, the system can become very dangerous and hazardous to the operators and even to the whole users as well.

Statement of problem                                                                                  

Stephen (2012) concurs with the above statement that the lack of maintenance in steam boiler will lead to hazardous effects by saying that boilers can be very dangerous if not inspected and maintained. He also presented a support to such by stating that each year, there are countless of accidents, breakdowns, and shutdowns that affect an approximated number of 43,000 people as a result of industrial boiler failure in the chemical, food processing, paper, refining, and primary metal industry in the US alone.

Additionally, he made known that boiler breakdown will result in thousands of dollars in equipment repairs, and other huge figure for property damage and income losses. A more serious note is that such accidents can also lead to loss of life and damage to plants, facilities or aquatic lives in cases where such plants are located near to these features. When compared with that of unplanted plants, the accident is however smaller.

Although steam boilers are designed to offer the needed prevention against these dangerous conditions from yielding subsequent disaster, it must be noted in line with statement by Stephen (2012) that only proper maintenance will ensure a subsequent prevention of these issues into developing into dangerous operation conditions in the first instance. Proper maintenance of steam boiler which includes serving, inspection and obeying the safety rule will go a long way towards minimizing and possibly reducing the risks that will come from lack of maintenance as described above.

While the issue of maintaining constant safety regulations and serving steam boilers have been described as necessary, the fact still remain that a number of reluctant behaviour exist in relation to ensuring a more safe operating environment for steam boilers, and this is because of lack of necessary regulation to monitor the safety features of the appliance and create the right environment for employees to be well motivated towards ensuring that they apply necessary measures to limit the potentials of such dangers.

On that note, the problem for this paper becomes understanding the control value and regular preventive measures to maintain the safety and efficiency of steam boiler. Understanding how to solve this problem is very important as it would result in numerous financial benefits is such issues are eliminated.

Research theory

The theory for this research will be based on that stated by Stephen, in which it was noted that “prevention of hazardous issues from occurring in steam boilers” starts first with observing certain maintenance features and sticking with necessary safety precaution (Stephen, 2012). This theory serves as the right background for understand the need to ensure a safe environment for workers and protect properties around the steam boiler as maintenance features that cost hundred or few thousands will be used to prevent hazards that can climb into millions and possibly billions in cases where the damages are high.

Purpose of research

The main purpose of the research is as stated in the research topic, which is to conduct an evaluative study for understanding the control value and regular preventive measures that can be used to enhance the safety and maintenance of steam boilers. Basically, this research topic and also purpose has been described to be very important from past studies and also by practitioners.  The argument presented in the introductory stages of this paper shows that steam boilers are very hazardous and the reason is because they produce hot water or steam at very high pressure.

Research question

Form the above purpose, a number of questions will be asked and these questions will be used to develop background understanding of what the research is all about. These questions are:

1.      What are the safety measures and maintenance practices in steam boiler?

2.      How can these approaches be undertaken?

3.      What are the benefits of such?

Importance of research

Basically, the above introduction have highlighted a number of benefit for adopting maintenance and safety measures in steam boilers and the benefits comes in the form that it would be helpful in establishing a system in which the steam boilers doesn’t result in any hazardous issues such as endangering the lives of people, properties and even result in economic losses and additionally incurred cost that will be used to repair and maintain the system.

From the account above, it becomes clear that this paper is very significant as it is designed to understand the best security measures that will be adopted towards enhancing the safety measures of steam boilers. This is because such an understanding will help create the right platform for establishing the base of establishing best practice features in the system and as such reduces and potentially eliminate the chances for failures that would put lives and properties at high risk.

Limitations

Steam boiler comes with a lot of features that ranges down to the minute segments and all these features are very important for the normal functionality of the system. As such, understanding how to ensure safety in the system is something that must be breakdown to these minute segments. However, this paper will not be able to do that. This paper will only focus on understanding the safety features in its broad sense as is widely adopted across industries. Still on that note, it must be noted that different forms of steam boilers exist across industries, but this paper doesn’t differentiate the application of these safety features as it related to the different form of steam boilers. Instead, the paper focuses on understanding a general assumption in which the precautions are defined by the term “steam boiler” and not specified to any form of steam boiler or functionality of the steam boiler.

Definition of terms

Steam boiler – this is appliances that has the capability to heat water and make it hot or turn it into steam for industrial use or for other purposes.

Industrial user – is any material that is being used in the industry to aid production process.

Precaution – this is the ability to apply safety measures in machinery and make sure that they don’t risk lives and properties around them.

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction

With the concept of the paper already defined in the previous chapter, the focus of this chapter is to establish an understanding the theoretical approaches involves in the study. Steam boiler is a common machinery in modern industry and a number of studies have also been conducted towards ensuring safe practices in relation to its application, as such, a number of theories and discoveries now existing in modern literature and they will be adopted in this study to understand what these theories account for and how such account can be put into realistic practices in the real world settings.

Steam-raising plant and boilers

Figure 1: Sectional view of a typical steam-raising boiler

Source as adapted from: Government of UK, Health and Safety Environment Ministry (2013)

Figure 1: is an illustration of the sectional view of a typical steam boiler. This view is commonly known as the shell and the tube boiler is the most common form of type view. The hot gas that comes from the burner is passed through the furnace tube and then take back through the smoke tube and out through the flue. The water is basically heated by the tubes and it is contained by the main pressure that contains this part, which is referred to as the shell.

Figure 2: typical vertical boiler

Source as adapted from: Government of UK, Health and Safety Environment Ministry (2013)

Figure 2: this is a typical illustration of a vertical boiler that can be found in a number of factories across the globe and it is used for either generating steam or very hot water.

Key boiler safety features

Still on the paper written by Stephen (2012), a number of safety features where identified as it relates to steam boilers and these features will be discussed in this section of the paper. it was noted by the noted that steam boilers have a number of safety features that are designed to offer prevention against the accidents that might occur from its usage and help stabilize the functionality of the machine in its optimal efficiency.

The author noted that the most common feature is the safety valve, which is designed to relieve the pressure that might arise as a result of failure of other system, and every steam boiler and water heater must have this safety feature that has an efficient capacity that is capable of matching the burner output.

The ability of a given safety valve to function properly can in any case be affected by the internal corrosion or restricted flow. In this case, internal corrosion normally comes as the most common causes of freezing or binding in safety/relief valve. The main cause of such is because of the slight leakage or simmering which is caused by an improperly seated valve disk, and the best measure for such is to correct that condition immediately. There is never a recommendation for a boiler to be operated very close to the safety valve and the reason is because such set pressure will result in the valve leaking slightly, and as such leading to corrosion build-up that will inevitably prevent the valve from operating (Stephen, 2012).

The water level control and fuel cut-off have their own separate functions, but these functions can be sometimes combined in one unit. They offer the necessary level for water control functions and the right safety features for a low-water fuel-cutoff device that is designed to enhance the safety of usage (Stephen, 2012). The best practice will then involves the pippin being open and free of scale or building up of sludge during the process of the operation. When this system is properly installed, the piping that is used across the tees makes it easy for cleaning and inspection. Other measures involve checking low-water fuel cut-offs properly in order to maintain the periodic operation of the steam boiler. As a result of the required test for boilers water to be in the minimum safe level, qualified personnel who handle the operation are advice to be in their most extreme cautionary status (Stephen 2012). As an addition to the periodic text of the low-water device, flush and float chamber on the water level control and the low-water fuel cut-off need to be thoroughly maintained in order to remove the accumulated sediments. An annual disassemble, cleaning and body check is recommended (Stephen 2012).

On the top of the boiler is a water gauge galls which is used to verify where the actual level of water that are contained in the boiler. When this glass are not cleaned and maintained, the sight glass might be blur and as such will not be able to offer accuracy in relation to the water level, which leave the system at high risk and increases the chances of the system being subjected to numerous operation failures as a result of over pumped water. Sometimes a stain or coating developing in the glass as a result of its contact with boiling water.

When necessary, the glass should be replaced even if the boiler needs to be shut down in order to so such. Stephen (2012) advised that such practice is very important in order to be ensuring that the pipe leading to the glass gauge doesn’t become clogged and the cleaning should be done in an inspected format through regular checks in order to avoid any issue of false water readings.

Stack temperature gauge are used to monitor the temperature of the flue gas. The indication at higher temperature is that the tubes might be in the process of developing a soot or scale build-up, which also means that the interior baffling might as well become deteriorated or burned through, giving way for hot gasses to bypass heat transfer through the surfaces of the baffling glass.

Efficiency and performance tip

Another area that Stephen (2012) hinted on in relation to steam boiler is on efficiency and performance of the system. In his notes, it was accounted that a boiler is responsible for most of the plant’s energy budge, and even a minor decrease in efficiency can result to a subsequent sharp increase in the energy cost. The author noted that a number of key issue influences the efficiency of a boiler.

The first of such features comes in the form maintaining an optimal air-to-fuel ration and this is described as important because a boiler needs just the right amount of oxygen in order to ensure an efficient combustion system. When excess air are presented in the system, it should be noted that excess air consume lots of energy as a result of the fact that they are being heated unnecessarily and realised up in the stack. Even when the air is too little, fuels is being wasted because not all the air in the system burns up. The fuels that are not burnt continues their movement in the system, and this results in soot behind left behind in the process. Also, it should be noted that too little air might also result in the build-up of carbon monoxide and smoke in the system. As such, in order to ensure efficiency and enhance the performance of the system, the operator should conduct an analysis of the flue gas in order to determine the amount oxygen and the stack gas temperature that can be used to calculate the efficiency. Additionally, adjustments should be made in order to optimize the excess air and incoming air temperatures.

Stephen (2012) noted that in order to conduct a measurement of the ratio, a computer-based distributed control system (DCS), which is capable of automatically reducing the oxygen level, is required in order to optimize the air-to-fuel ratio. The water that will be feed into the system also needs to be treated before it is being pumped into the boiler. Raw mater can result in corrosion or build-up of sediment, and these two features have the potential of reducing the efficiency of the system. Additionally, impurities waste energy as a result of their necessary routine blow-downs. The cleaner the water supply, the fewer the blow-downs that are needed in the system.

The author also noted that efficiency can be enhanced by cleaning the heat transfer surface in order to remove the build-up of soot that can act as insulators, and reduces the potential for the heat to be efficiently transferred between combustion gas and the steam generators (Stephen, 2012). Heat loss has been identified as having the potential to waste huge amount of energy. As such, this needs to be minimized in order to ensure efficiency and the best way to do so have been described as installing an economizer in order to enhance the heat recovery system from the stack. This recovered heat can then be used to preheat the water being feed into the system. It is advised that care should be taken in order to have the boiler properly cleaned and tuned prior to the installation process of the economizer as such will help to ensure accuracy in the measures of the stack gas temperature. Also, heat can be removed from the flue gas (below 300 °F) through the adoption of a condensing economizer.

The temperature of the flue gas is measured by the stack temperature gauge. The measurement is determined in such a way that the lower the flue gas temperature, the more efficient the system is. At an approximated 1%, it has been noted that the boiler thermal efficiency is lost for a 40 °F rise in stack temperature.

The condensate from the steam traps should be collected for re-using as the feed water as Stephen (2012) noted that this will help reduce the operating cost of the boilers and it is also more cost-effective that when using the fresh water. This is because lesser fuel is required for the conversion of the recovered condensate into steam that is required for fresh utility water. Basically, the notion being presented is all about recycling in which used materials are being reused to reduce the cost of purchasing new ones and it has also been found to be able to induce efficiency effectively.

Factors that influence the safe operation of boilers

While the features that are necessary toward ensuring safety and efficiency of boilers have been discussed above, it is important to understand that these features doesn’t function by their own, instead they are influenced by a number of factors and the level of success achieved in terms of performance safety and efficiency depends heavily on these factors.

Figure 3: factors that influences safety and efficiency of boilers

Source as adapted from: Government of UK, Health and Safety Environment Ministry (2013)

From the above figure, a number of factors can be noticed, and the UK government also presented a clear definition of these factors and these definitions will be applied in this paper in order to understand how they influence efficiency and safety in steam boilers.

Operations - basically, the Ministry of HSE, UK (2013) highlighted this to be the most significant factor. This is because operation measures the process in which the steam boiler is operating, highlighting set guidelines on how the operation process will be undertaken. In cases where the operation process are well defined towards enhanced efficiency and safety, it is without a doubt that the system will definitely be efficiency and safe because the operators will put in necessary measures to ensure that such is the outcomes. As such, operation of the system should be based on set guidelines that influence safety and efficiency positively.

Competence – this comes in the form of the operator, and it is used to measure the level of experience, understanding, and application of the safety and efficiency measures that the operators have. The Ministry of HSE, UK (2013) noted that efficiency is more ensured in cases where the operators are very competent with the operation process as they will be better positioned to understand as well as implement the necessary measures that will be used to ensure a safe operating system.

Training – in cases where competence is low, the right approach comes in the form of training as noted by the Ministry of HSE, UK (2013), this is because training programs will help increase the competence level of the operators by educating them on the safety measures and how to implement such measures, then enhance their applicability of these measures in the system environment. As such, it can be seen that training is the right tool for enhanced safety and efficiency. Another reason in the fact that advancements will also means differences in operation features and it becomes necessary that the company invest in training its workforce in order to ensure that they are better positioned to enhance the operation process effectively and efficiently.

Maintenance - maintenance in this case comes in form of defining the right strategy and approaches to maintain the system and ensuring that such approaches are effectively and efficiently adopted in the operations mechanism. Basically, the centred of discussion in this paper has been to understand how the boiler can be maintained and a number of maintenance features have been presented. This is a further support to the fact that the maintenance of the system is very important as it would help to enhance the functionality effectively and efficiently.

Design – an interesting feature in the maintenance of steam boilers is that of the design. This is because when the steam boilers are properly simply designed, the maintenance features will be enhanced as compared to sophisticated designed. As such, it can easily noticed that simple and small steam boilers are usually well maintained when compared with the big system available in heavy industries.

Location – while the idea of location as concerned with safety and efficiency of steam boilers might not easily be conceived, the Ministry of HSE, UK (2013) noted that location plays important role in cases where the system malfunctions. This is because when the steam boilers are located aware from properties and residential areas, malfunctioning will reduce the level of damage that close location would have induced. Earlier in the introductory part of this paper, it was noted that failure of steam boilers have high negative influence on the environment and this influences comes in the form high damages to properties around and risk to lives within the vicinity.

Safety system – just like the operation and maintenance features discussed above, the implication of this discussion is that the steam boiler should have a well-defined safety system which will be used to measure the level of application and operation design in order to ensure that the system doesn’t result in any significant damage, or risk the lives of people even when it fails.

Control system – based on the description presented by the Ministry of HSE, UK (2013), this is still in line with the maintenance and safety discussions above and this is based on the notion that the steam boiler should be equipped with a direct switch that controls the operations within the entire system. This is based on the understanding that it will make it very easy to control the system when issues arise. For instance, if the system is found to be defective in any form, the switch can be turned off and the whole system becomes inspirational.

Testing and examination– the testing comes as a support for the training program discussed above, and it is based on the understanding whether the trainees learned the necessary kills that they have been trained on. The testing also comes in the form of understanding whether the system is capable of meeting the operation standards it has been designed to achieve and it becomes important to test the system with every new service in order to ensure that it still meets the standards.

Supervision – an important personality in the maintenance of safety and efficiency comes in the form of the supervisors. While the employees might have been trained and equipped with the right tools to ensure safety operations, there is never a guarantee that these employees will make use of these tools as they have been trained to and this makes it important for the company to supervise their operation process in order to ensure that that they stick with the safety measures, skills, approaches and guidelines that has been passed to them.

Management - the Ministry of HSE, UK (2013) also noted that the management have an integral role to lay in ensuring safety in the system, and this role comes in the form of defining what is obtainable in the operations process, how such approaches are measure and the right ways to communicate such value. The communication process can come in the form of the corporate culture, code of conduct and code of business ethics which the employees must abide with while in the company.

The HIRARC concept in steam boiler risk assessment

The HIRARC concept is a synonym used to represent Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment, and Risk Control. Mohd (2010) noted that HIRARC is the principle used in the management of safety and health in workplace and it is based on the section 15(12)(a) of the OSHA 1994: which stated that there should be provision for the maintenance of plants and systems of work that are, so far as it can practicably be adopted, safe and not posing any risk to the health of people around such plants, and the process is as illustrated in the figure below.

Figure 4: HIRARC concept

Source as adapted from: Mohd (2010)

From the above diagram, it can be seen that the acronym represented by HIRARC is all about identifying hazards, assessing the risk posed by such hazards and deriving the right measure to control such risk in order to ensure a better operating environment for staffs working in steam boilers and people living around such places.

In order to ensure that this approach is guaranteed success in the business setting, a number of Acts have been enacted in order to control the construction, operation and maintenance of steam boilers in such a way that such practices doesn’t endanger the lives of people operating it or those living around the steam boiler. Some of these acts include:

1)      Section  14  FMA  1967  Boiler  Construction.

2)      Section  19  FMA  1967  Must  have  valid  COF.

3)      Section  29  FMA  1967  Operated  by  Competent  person.

4)      Section  40  FMA  1967  Regular  Inspection.

Summary findings

The above analysis has shown that a number of issues exist in terms of managing the level of safety and efficiency in steam boiler operations. These issues come in terms of understanding the best approaches to ensure that the system is safety. The lack of safety measures will yield catastrophic influence and it comes in the form of damages to properties that will result to millions if not billions of losses and threats to lives that can even result to death. As such, the question is no longer whether it is important to enhance the safety of steam boilers operations; instead the question is centred on understanding how such approaches can be enhance and that is the main reason for this paper, which is designed to understand how safety and efficiency can be enhanced and this paper has highlighted a number of features in the form of ensuring that the system is well maintenance, cleaned and free of boots that will directly influence the level of efficiency. All these features will help enhance the applicability of the system and increase the chances of an efficient and safe running.

CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Introduction

Having completed the requirements of the first two chapter which have also helped present a better understanding of the scope of the paper and the intended outcome from the research process, this section is designed to understand how primary research will be conducted, in relation to the research approaches, philosophy and strategies that will be adopted. The need for conducting primary research is very significant because it will help to build the right model of understanding how the research topic is generally perceived in the real world setting. This is because the primary research will present a better understanding of what people think about the research topic and how safety is implemented and measures in steam boiler industry. This understanding will also be used to conduct a comparative analysis of the findings from the primary research and discussion in the literature review in order to understand whether what is obtainable in theory is also obtainable in the real world setting.

Research strategy

This will be a qualitative research which is designed to understand how safety measures and efficiency are implemented in the researcher’s own company. The fact that the researcher personally work for a steam boiler company puts me in the right positioned to understand the implementation of safety and efficiency measures in the operation of steam boiler because the researcher know all the operators and can approach them with my questionnaire and have them fill up the questions easily. Additionally, the researcher is in good terms with the management and this also means that the researcher can meet them and gain a better understanding in relation to how the company transmits safety and efficiency in the management of steam boilers.

Data gathering and measurement

The data will be gathered form 30 employees in the company and the measurement will be in the form of 5-point likert scale measuring tool. This point will have them choose between totally agreeing with a statement and totally disagreeing with that statement in which the measure of neutrality is also offered.

Once the data have been gathered, the next approach involves measuring the finding from the data and this will be done with SPSS statistical tool. The measurement will involve understanding the geographical components of the responders in the form of their sex, age, and position held in the company, understanding the descriptive analysis of the variable loaded into the question and then understanding the correlation of these variables in terms of how they influence each other.

Research philosophy

In order to ensure that the finding from the paper are capable of meeting set standards in the research process, extra care will be taken to ensure that the data are of high quality. While the fact that the researcher works in the company has been described earlier as an added advantage to the research process, it is also important to understand that this form of close relationship will have certain influence on the response pattern of employees. This is because some of these responders are close friends with the researcher and since they understand that the researcher is doing such for academic purpose, they might be tempted to give results that is not the actually reflection of their thoughts, but is instead their basic view in relation to making the researcher achieve set academic goals. Additionally, these employees might view the research process as having a direct influence on their job status as the researcher is one of them, and as such they might be forced to present falsified responds in order to make the management view them as worthy employees instead of associating them with certain views of negativity.

As such, the philosophy is designed with consideration of thee above discussions and in that case extra care will be taken that the personal influence of the researcher on the company doesn’t have a direct influence on the researcher outcome. In order to ensure that, the researcher will seek the favour of a friends who doesn’t work in the company to conduct the research which the researcher will observe the research process from a distance in order to ensure that it meets set guidelines.

Ethical consideration

From the above analysis, it is clear that a number of ethical issues exist in terms of conducing the research process in a way that set objectives are meet without compromising the standards and quality of the research process. The most common ethical consideration in this case comes in the form of data manipulation in cases where the researcher advices the responders on what to do in order  to ensure that the finding falls in line with research objectives. However, this has been eliminated in the sense that the researcher will not be conducting the research personally and the research pledges to abide by the research ethics as contained in the research form.

CHAPTER 4

DATA ANALYSIS

4.1 Introduction

From the chapter 3 above, the research methodology to be adopted for the primary research was discussed and this is the ground from which this present chapter is developed. The focus of this chapter is to conduct an analysis of the finding that was gathered with the research methodology discussed in the previous chapter.

4.2 Test of reliability

The first step in any primary research is to conduct a test of reliability or prove how reliable the gathered data are. This is important because the level of reliability gained from a data will highly influence the significance of the finding that will be made from such data and as such will have a high impact on the overall research.

The most common approach to testing the reliability of a data that developed by Lee Crombach, which is known as the Crombach Alpha. In SPSS statistics, this is done by computing all gathered variables against each other in order to determine how they influence the whole response pattern.

Severity	Likelihood
	V/Likely	Likely	Unlikely	H/Unlikely
Fatality	High	High	High	Medium
Major Injuries	High	High	Medium	Medium
Minor Injuries	High	Medium	Medium	Low
First Aid/ N/misses	Medium	Medium	Low	Low

In the crombach analysis, the level of reliability is measures at 0.5, in which the data that attains such value is considered reliable and the data that attains below such value is considered unreliable and the higher the data the higher the level of reliability. From the above analysis, it can be seen that the value is 0.35, which can easily be used to view the data as being unreliable but this is not true in this case as the value attained is because of the little variables loaded and low volume of responders.

The gathered data is reliable because it was gathered from the researcher’s company, which means that it can easily be proven. As such, this validates all claims for reliability and eliminates any misconception that might be gained by merely looking at the reliability value obtained above.

4.3 Demographic analysis

Figure 4.1

From the above analysis, it can be seen that male responders make up the highest group in terms of gender, and this could be an indication that male staffs are more likely to be employed in Steam Boiler Company than are their female counter parts. However, this will require further research in order to be validated.

Figure 4.2

Another variable studied in terms of understanding the respondents demographic profile include the department that they are employed in. From the above analysis, it can be seen that most of the responders come from the technical and engineering department, then followed by those in the accounting department, with the administrative department coming on later and lastly the hrm department. The diversity in terms of the departments of the responders will influence the research outcome positively and this is based on the notion that it would allow the researcher to gain a general view of what the whole staffs thinks are the preventive and maintenance practices in steam boiler companies that can influence the overall performance and safety of the steam boiler.

4.4 Understanding operation maintenance and preventive mechanism in steam boilers

Having validated the reliability of the data above, this section will move further to undertake an analysis of the variables loaded into the questionnaire in order to achieve the research objective.

Table 4.1

operation should be done with set guidelines and standards
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	1.00	30	100.0	100.0	100.0

The first variable loaded into the question is the understanding of the influence of undertaking operations with set guidelines. Significantly, all the responders are of the notion that this is very important in the sense that they all said “yes” to the statement. The implication now becomes that it is important to undertake the operations of the steam boiler with set guidelines and the significance of the importance is based on the understanding that it would enhance the overall safety and maintenance features.

Table 4.2

management should control the operations and ensure they are safe
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	1.00	30	100	100	100
	Total	30	100.0	100.0

The management have role to play in ensuring the safety and maintenance features of the steam boiler and this is reflected from the variable above in which it was indicated that the management should control the practices in the company in order to ensure that they are in the set guidelines. Control normally comes in the form of monitoring the operations in the company and ensuring that the employees stick with the safety features in the operations process.

Table 4.3

staffs should be trained on the safe operations skills
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	1.00	30	100.0	100.0	100.0

Still in line with other variables in relation to the fact that all the responders agree that the staffs should be trained on the necessary skills to ensure safe operations and maintenance, and it raises the significance of the variable in the sense that it can be seen that training is very important in order to maintain safety and improve the performance of the steam boiler system.

Table 4.4

steam boiler should be maintained regularly to avoid clog and slogs
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	1.00	30	100.0	100.0	100.0

Earlier discussion showed that lack of maintenance leads to accumulation of slogs and clogs, and this is loaded into the variable above. Additionally, all the responders agree that this is true in the sense that steam boilers should be maintained in order to ensure that the slog and clogs are not accumulated as such accumulation will lead to safety issues as well as reduce the performance of the system.

Table 4.5

the design should be in an easy to maintain way
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	1.00	30	100.0	100.0	100.0

While maintenance and prevention of safety issues are the main elements of discussion, it is important to understand that maintenance comes as a product of certain variables and one of such is the need for the steam boiler to be designed in such a way that maintenance becomes easy. This was loaded into the analysis and it can be seen from the response that responders generally agree with such statement, noting that it would directly influence the maintenance practices positively.

Table 4.6

steam boilers should be located away from humans to ensure safety
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	1.00	11	36.7	36.7	36.7
	2.00	19	63.3	63.3	100.0
	Total	30	100.0	100.0

Unlike earlier discussions, not all the responders agree with the above statement (36.7%) to be precise and this can be based on the notion that locating a steam boiler close to residential area is not something that will endanger people so long as the safety features is maintained. A good example is the case of hotels that make use of steam boilers in their premises to provide hot water for customers. As such, the focus should be on defining the right approach and sticking with this approach in order to ensure that the outcome becomes very positive. However, 63.3% of the respondents agree that such will reduce the safety issues and improve the maintenance features, and as such should be put into consideration.

Table 4.7

steam boilers should have central control system to reduce potentials for hazard
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	1.00	30	100.0	100.0	100.0
	Total	30	100.0	100.0

This was discussed earlier in the review of literature and the importance is stressed on the fact that a central control system will mean that the whole steam boiler system can be switched off once any hazardous issue is detected. The idea of a central control unit will without a doubt improve the safety in the system as well as the maintenance of the system as the system can totally be turned off by a single switch once any issue is noticed and this single switch turn off can also be for the company to conduct routine checks and maintenance on the system.

Table 4.8

new installations should be tested to ensure safety
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	1.00	30	100.0	100.0	100.0

While the safety measures might have been previously maintained and the overall performance of the system improved, it is important to understand that these safety features can easily be compromised with new installation and as such it becomes important to ensure that the practices undertaken in the company are done in such a way that safety is always ensured. On that account, all the responders agree that new installations should always be tested in order to ensure that they are free of any safety issues and as such increase the level of safety and performance of the system.

Table 4.9

supervisors should always monitor employees to ensure they practice safe operations
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	1.00	24	80.0	80.0	80.0
	2.00	6	20.0	20.0	100.0
	Total	30	100.0	100.0

The level of maintenance as discussed in the review of literature needs to be regulated in order to ensure that they are in line with set criteria. In cases where the level of maintenance is measured as an outcome of the people undertaking the operations being monitored by external body in order to ensure that they are always in line with what the corporate objective intends to achieve. On that account, the variable was loaded to understand the importance of supervisors in ensuring that quality is maintained and the outcome of such research as can be seen from the above analysis is that 80% of the responders agree with such statement.

Table 4.10

the safety measures should be easily transmissible
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	1.00	21	70.0	70.0	70.0
	2.00	9	30.0	30.0	100.0
	Total	30	100.0	100.0

The last variables loaded into the analysis was to create an understanding of how the level of transmissibility of the safety features enhances the safety of steam boilers and improves the performance of the system. From the finding it is clear that transmissibility is important as 70% of the responders agree with such statement by revealing that it is important for the safety features of the system to be transmissible as this will increase the overall performance of the system and also enhance maintenance measures because everybody in the system understand the safety approaches and knows what best to do when the time comes for them to act quickly against unfolding hazards.

4.5 Summary of findings

The purpose of this chapter as highlighted earlier is to conduct an analysis of the findings from the primary research and the questionnaire used for the study contains data that have been furnished from the discoveries from the primary research. From the analysis above, it can be seen that the respondents are of the opinion that management plays tsh most significant role in determining the success of a steam boiler’s effectiveness and operation quality. This is because the management are the one that design the operation approach, coordinate the operation process and make necessary adjustments in cases where the operations are not in line with the designed purpose. The management also provide necessary training and enhance the transmissibility of the system, which means that they play huge role in ensuring that the operation is conducted in best way possible and can easily be maintained. On that account, it will be stated that while other factors such as training, transmissibility of operations process, competence, coordination and testing of system influences the effectiveness of a steam boiler system and the maintenance, the management play integral role in the sense that they are solely responsible for ensuring the effective maintenance and enhanced performance of steam boilers because they are the bedrock from which other factors is created.

CHAPTER 5

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Right from the beginning of the paper, the purpose was clearly stated as being designed to understand how steam boiler can effectively be maintained in order to ensure improved performance and reduced hazardous issues. On that account, the study was organized in such a way that it would include both secondary and primary research. The purpose of the secondary research is to develop the right background for conducting the primary research.

From the secondary research, it was found that steam boilers can be very hazardous in cases where they are not properly managed, leading to financial losses and endangering the lives of people that reside close to the system or operating the system. On the account that these losses can be in millions of dollars and hundreds of lives, it becomes important that steam boiler system should be properly managed in order to ensure that they are safe and operation doesn’t yield any negativity.

Based on the above documentation, the primary research was conducted to understand the factors responsible for safe operations of steam boilers and how such operations can effectively be enhanced in order to ensure that the outcome doesn’t yield any hazardous influence on the society of financial losses to the company. A number of factors were identified based on the responses gathered and it is clear from the analysis that operation competence, supervision, set guidelines for operations, design of the steam boiler, transmissibility of safety features, central control unit and regular monitoring of the system will effectively improve the maintenance features and the management plays integral role as they are responsible for ensuring that all these features are well integrated in the system.

From the above discussions, it is concluded that regular maintenance of steam boilers is very important as it will improve performance and management is key to such improvement.

REFERENCES

Stephen K (2012), “Boiler inspection and maintenance.” Available at: http://www.awt.org/IFMA/articles/Boiler_Inspection_Maintenance.pdf [accessed on: 14/06/2013].

The Ministry of Health and Environment Safety, UK (2013), “safe management of industrial steam and hot water boilers.” Available ta: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg436.pdf [Accessed on: 14/06/2013].