AVHENG

Providing benefits to our clients and the greater community through engineering excellence and creativity

The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta : International Pressure Equipment Integrity Association

About Us

AVH Engineering Inc. (AVHENG) is a trusted supplier of specialised asset reliability management and technical services.

AVHENG consists of professional and experienced integrity engineers and data management specialists.  Asset reliability is crucial to effective long-term facility operations.  AVHENG aims to assist clients in operating their assets safely and efficiently by increasing equipment availability over time.


AVHENG focuses on progressive growth via:

  • Understanding our customers’ needs
  • Providing custom solutions to unique situations
  • Always providing top-level quality services and work ethic
  • Upholding the safety and protection of our employees and contractors

Our Services

Pressure Equipment

We know what kind of pressure your equipment can put you under, particularly if it's not operating optimally. AVHENG provides detailed reporting and assessment for virtually all pressure equipment found in the energy and petrochemical sectors. Details are what you need and what we provide.

  • ▼   Circuitization

    The circuitization process separates piping and associated equipment into segments or loops. Each segment has similar types and levels of degradation. Piping systems with similar construction materials, process conditions, and design specifications have similar corrosion properties. Circuits with the same damage mechanisms degrade in a similar manner. Specific inspection techniques can be chosen per circuit. The benefits of dividing complex process units or piping systems into piping circuits are:

    • Assist with risk-based analysis
    • Identify critical piping segments
    • Optimize piping inspections
    • Assist with effective decision-making
    • Streamline calculations
    • Make record-keeping manageable

    AVHENG staff expertly separate systems into corrosion circuits. Customers receive hard-copy and electronic P&IDs highlighting each circuit. Defined circuits and P&IDs are cross-referenced for easy use.

  • ▼   CML Optimization

    • Corrosion/Condition Monitoring Locations (CMLs) or Thickness Measurement Locations (TMLs) are set inspection points designed for the repeat inspections used to determine damage rates so that piping and equipment can be repaired or replaced before loss of containment. CMLs should be optimized to give the best information about equipment or piping's state. Anticipated damage mechanisms based on service, material of construction, and equipment configuration must all be considered when determining a CML.

    Optimization is a process to make condition monitoring more effective by extracting maximal information with minimal effort. Many plants have too much data and limited information. AVHENG utilizes techniques developed for Risk-Based Inspection to optimize the number and location of CMLs

    • Target susceptible locations by considering materials of construction, process, and flow conditions
    • Examination measurements must be repeatable and taken at suitable locations
    • Place CMLs to fully use information gathered
    • Identify specific inspection techniques for damage mechanisms

    Regular CML assessments aid in tracking plant assets’ integrity.

    • A CML program is critical to safe and efficient operations
    • Companies can budget and plan for maintenance before failures occur
    • CML inspections use valuable plant Integrity Group resources for planning, execution, and reviewing collected data
    • Optimization helps to extract more information and increase condition monitoring effectiveness

    AVHENG can provide:

    • Piping isometric diagrams or vessel drawings identifying CML points
    • Inspection advice
    • CML data in electronic-file format — suitable for corrosion monitoring software packages, such as VisionsTM, Meridium, or PCMS
    • Customized field survey sheets to record collected data

    Periodic review of condition monitoring programs helps to assure that all CML information is useful. CMLs can be added or removed, as required.

  • ▼   Corrosion Control

    Corrosion Control Documents (CCDs) contain the specific corrosion-creating details of a chemical or refining process. CCDs have various sections, including:

    • damage mechanisms
    • design data (e.g., construction materials, equipment age)
    • critical reliability variables (e.g., operating parameters, cycles, process chemistry)
    • guidelines for equipment reliability

    AVHENG CCD management develops awareness of the different types of damage modes and mechanisms that may be present in a facility and how they may affect fixed equipment and piping. A CCD manual provides guidance for maintenance inspection, monitoring, and operations to minimize asset degradation. The CCD is a resource for personnel to understand how damage occurs and how Damage Mechanisms (DMs) change with changes in operational conditions and parameters over the life cycle of the plant.

  • ▼   Integrity Operating Windows

    API RP 584 states that “a fundamental understanding of the process/operating conditions and resulting damage mechanisms is required in order to establish and maintain an inspection program that yields the highest probability of detecting potential damage.” AVHENG staff are experienced in IOW development for pressure equipment and piping. IOWs combine operating process facts and integrity management principles to analyse the effects of process changes within equipment’s design limits. IOWs assist integrity teams to predict equipment damage and manage equipment operation and integrity strategies to mitigate damage and extend equipment life.

  • ▼   RAM Services

    Reliability, Availability, Maintainability (RAM) assessments provide the means to easily emulate the operation of a facility such as a gas plant, chemical plant, or wind farm. RAM analyses take into account equipment failure and repair, system configuration, production capability, product demand, and equipment analysis to determine business risk, or the impact of downtime from failures on profitability. Unlike safety risk ranking, business risk ranking addresses failures resulting in reduced production.

    Benefits include:

    • Reducing maintenance and sparing costs while maintaining and/or increasing production levels.
    • Optimizing capital investment for reducing the cost of production.
    • Decreases in unplanned and planned outage durations.
    • Alignment of maintenance resources based on the criticality of equipment to production revenue.
    • Accurate forecasts of equipment life-cycle costs that reflect equipment age, duty cycle, and maintenance effectiveness.
    • Optimization of capital improvement options within a plant or within an enterprise when improvement budgets are constrained.

    Business risk analysis is used to:

    • Maximize production revenue.
    • Increase plant efficiency and reliability levels.
    • Minimize downtime – some facilities have seen improved production efficiencies of 5% to 10%.
    • Minimize life-cycle costs.
    • Reduce maintenance workloads, reducing operating costs up to 15%.
    • Reduce capital replacement costs.
    • Preserve and maintain safety requirements and production goals.
  • ▼   RBI Implementation

    Significant resources can be spent once a decision has been made to initiate an RBI program: Individuals are assigned the task of determining which software is to be evaluated and purchased, what equipment is to be included in the program, along with a wide variety of decisions that will affect the way the integrity unit works in the future. Now it is time for implementation.

    Owner User companies may decide to implement the program themselves, often assigning the task to a full-time employee who already has day-to-day commitments and projects, so the RBI program languishes. AVHENG can supply the expert personnel required to get you through the challenges of implementation and execution, allowing personnel to concentrate on their daily priorities with minimum impact to work flows. AVHENG’s implementation services save time and allow you to quickly benefit from your investment.

Assessment Services

ASSESSMENT SERVICES:

AVHENG personnel have extensive experience in performing assessments for:

  •  Mergers and Acquisitions

  •  Pressure Equipment Integrity Management programs

  •  Forensic investigations of failed equipment, piping, fittings, pipelines, etc.

  •  Fitness-for-Service assessments of assets

  • ▼   Asset Management Reviews

    AVHENG personnel are experienced in reviewing facility maintenance management programs on a client’s behalf. AVHENG has a standardized methodology for performing comprehensive assessments, that is similar to the ISO 55000 Asset Management process, to ensure all facets of a program are included in a review. Our teams have provided this service for:

    •  Power Generation

    •  Heavy Oil operations

    •  Upstream, Midstream, and Downstream Oil & Gas facilities

    •  Offshore, Terminal, and Petrochemical facilities

    Assessments are provided:

    •  As a stand-alone service for Mergers and Acquisitions

    •  As part of a Pressure Equipment Integrity Management (PEIM) service such as a prelude to an RBI implementation for example, with technical teams tailored to the client’s scope requirements

    The assessment process can be used to review:

    •  Operational Assurance Strategy (FEED, Design, Construction, Commissioning)

    •  Current operations in line with ISO 55000 Strategic Asset Management Plan (SAMP) principles

    Asset Management Reviews (AMRs) are performed as a structured review of a management system with a view to benchmarking against current industry standards and best practice, identification of perceived deficiencies, and establishment of improvement plans.


    ▶ View Facility Maintenance Management Assessments brochure


  • ▼   Fitness for Service

    API 579 Fitness-for-Service (FFS) evaluations determine if pressure equipment and piping which contain anomalies are structurally suitable for continued service. FFS evaluations are done only by trained engineering staff. AVHENG is able to provide Level I and II evaluations and Level III engineering assessments on a wide variety of industrial equipment to help clients make the repair/replace/run-to-failure decisions that are critical to safe plant operations.

  • ▼   Forensic Engineering - Insurance & Litigation

    AVHENG provides expert services to determine the root cause of industrial failures that can result in injuries, loss of equipment use, or cost for repair of damage. Forensic investigations range from audits of failure reports, knowledge of codes, knowledge of materials and processes, as well as familiarity with operations. Investigators work individually or as part of an interdisciplinary team. The focus of forensic engineering services is to determine the initial failure mechanism that will allow organizations to improve future reliability.


    Boiler & Machinery/Equipment Breakdown Investigation

    AVHENG provides specialized large-loss Equipment Breakdown investigation and expert witness services for industrial “mechanical failures” for insurance subrogation and litigation. As follows, nearly all businesses face exposure to Equipment Breakdown. Some common examples of industries and assets facing Equipment Breakdown include:

    • Schools, food processors, grocers
    • Hospitals, schools, hotels, office buildings
    • Contractors
    • Manufacturers, fabricators
    • Power plants, refineries, chemical processors, pipelines
    • Boilers, turbines, pumps, compressors, valves, pressure vessels, piping, controls and instrumentation

      • Our Experience with Boiler & Machinery/Equipment Breakdown Investigation

        AVHENG has extensive boiler and machinery/equipment breakdown, fire, and explosion failure origin and root-cause investigation experience. Whether your case involves direct damage to machinery, boiler explosion, or a consequential loss (i.e., loss of production), our expert team of metallurgical and mechanical engineers and subject-matter experts (SMEs) have likely dealt with similar litigation or insurance subrogation issues.

        ▶   View Forensic Services brochure

Data Services

You've invested a lot of time and money in your asset management data.   Now let us help you get the most value from your investment.

AVHENG provides a variety of solutions for all your data challenges.

  •   Asset tracking

  •   Data entry or cleanup

  • ▼   File Manipulation

    File manipulation encompasses a wide range of applications, including handling/processing large numbers of files, cleaning data electronically, extracting data from databases, and formatting file layouts in different ways. For example, switching to a different asset management software system may involve extracting the data from the original database, rearranging the fields into the proper format required by the new system, then loading the data into the new database.

    Files may be manipulated either externally (e.g., renaming a long list of files) or internally (e.g., adding tabs and rearranging data within an Excel spreadsheet).

  • ▼   Data analytics

    Make your data make sense — turn your storehouse of data into useful information. Discover patterns and trends within your data to reveal how your assets are performing and whether your procedures and processes are working.

  • ▼   Automating time-consuming or labour-intensive processes

    If you have boring, repetitive tasks, or tasks that must be performed with consistency and precision, chances are we can write a program or macro to perform those tasks for you with the push of a button.

  • ▼   Baseline development and performance tracking

    We can help you define and implement key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure different aspects of your business and assist in management reporting and informed decision-making.

  • ▼   "Smart" forms

    Custom electronic forms can be provided for you with intelligence behind the documents — complex dropdown lists, data entry validation, automatic population of fields. Make your forms quicker and easier to fill in, and prevent errors at the source.

  •   Customised solutions to meet your specific needs

▶   Click here to view our Data Services brochure

Personnel

A stable, qualified, skilled staff geared to providing excellence for our clients.  AVHENG staff have specialised experience in facility reliability involving advanced equipment risk analysis.

Contact Us

AVH Engineering Inc.

462, 11007 Jasper Ave.
Edmonton, AB T5K 0K6

Phone: 780.461.9393

[email protected]
www.avheng.com

AVHENG USA, Inc.

707 Shallop Ct.
Millersville, MD 21108, USA

Phone: 410.729.5681

[email protected]
www.avheng.com

NOTICE:   Anyone claiming to be from the HR department of AVH Engineering Inc. (possibly with an e-mail address ending in "@engineer.com") asking for your contact details to arrange an online interview or perhaps offer you a job is not legitimate.   AVHENG is not hiring at this time.
































Solutions

AVHENG provides Asset Reliability Management services to energy and chemical operators, insurers, and litigators.

As a forward-thinking, problem-solving company, we provide innovative risk-based solutions for unique situations.


Contact us today to discuss how we might help you meet your objectives.