Working to tight schedules
Maintaining and operating production and infrastructure facilities in the process industry – these are the main areas of expertise of XERVON Instandhaltung GmbH. The company recently demonstrated just how extraordinary its capabilities are in this field when it took part in three refinery turnarounds and a project to convert a refinery. These complex large-scale projects all took place at the same time and all had extremely tight schedules.
Both planning & implementation must be perfect
Inspecting and overhauling refineries are a challenging time for all those involved. A whole range of complex interconnected tasks have to be performed under the strictest of safety standards and within the shortest of times – and delivered reliably, smoothly and according to schedule. All the work must be meticulously planned beforehand and then implemented perfectly if such projects are to be a success.
Project 1
A shutdown at a large refinery in the north of Germany
XERVON Instandhaltung was responsible for all piping and all mechanical work during a turnaround project at a refinery in Hamburg, which lasted several weeks. Several hundred machine parts had to be dismantled, checked, repaired where necessary and then reassembled, including heat exchangers, vessels and control and safety valves.
Project 2
Conversion of a conventional refinery into a refinery for specialty oils
At the same time, the conventional refinery at the site was converted into a refinery for specialty oils. XERVON’s maintenance experts played a major role in this project as well. Several hundred of the company’s piping experts travelled to the site to construct pipes, perform welding work and install fixtures. They laid the pipes for the new plant sections and serviced the pipes in the old plant facilities.
Project 3
Münchsmünster industrial estate, large-scale turnaround at a refinery
A cracker and polyethylene plant – the centrepieces of the production operations – had to be inspected at a refinery located in Münchsmünster industrial estate. XERVON Instandhaltung works at this industrial estate as a general contractor. Its on-site team there was joined by a variety of other specialists for this project – including XERVON scaffolding experts, BUCHEN industrial cleaning specialists and BUCHEN ICS, a company specialising in handling catalyst.
Project 4
Heide Refinery – turnaround project
Heide Refinery is the northernmost plant processing crude oil in Germany. XERVON Instandhaltung has a contract with the operators there to provide services whenever a turnaround is due and so are always on site during shutdowns. Besides carrying out the other three projects, therefore, the company also performed a wide range of tasks here as well – checking the heat exchangers, containers, air coolers, reactors and columns.
“Good planning is extremely important; what is key, however, is the team of people on site.“
Thomas Kramel, Managing Director at XERVON Instandhaltung GmbH
Meticulous organisation of resources
Comprehensive expertise is needed to be able to carry out several turnaround projects simultaneously. To begin with, XERVON Instandhaltung has an extremely experienced and highly effective planning department which plans each and every individual task right down to the smallest detail. All the different resources are organised – from the number of operatives that will be needed, to the materials, to the technical equipment and tools.
Over 1,000 operatives in action
One of the aces that the XERVON maintenance specialists have up their sleeve is their extensive capacities. Firstly they have a very large stock of tools and secondly they have a large pool of excellently trained specialists. Moreover, their own team of operatives can be joined by employees from their partner companies whenever they are needed. Thanks to these resources, the company was able to deploy over 1,000 operatives for the four projects which lasted a total of two months.
XERVON Instandhaltung provides a full range of services from infrastructure services, to services for rotating equipment and fittings, all the way through to shutdown and maintenance management.
“Manpower and equipment are both extremely important in our business. Flexibility, however, is also key,” explained managing director, Thomas Kramel. No matter how well such projects are planned and no matter how many years of experience a company may have, it is impossible to organise everything beforehand. There are always a number of tasks that crop up unexpectedly during such turnarounds that have to be sorted out within a short space of time. Thomas Kramel continued: “Our ability to react quickly to such circumstances is one of our strengths and one of the reasons why XERVON Instandhaltung has such a good reputation in this specialist field.”
Image credits: Picture 1: Raffinerie Heide
