Almost all production processes have bottlenecks in a step or process that limits total plant throughput. For example, the convection oven is often the bottleneck in drying or paint curing operation. Or, being able to reject heat to the overhead condensers during the hottest months of the summer can limit production due to bottlenecks in evaporation and distillation. And humidity in the air can limit production in injection molding.
Glib claims of improvements are dangerous in bottleneck situations because debottlenecking one step often quickly shifts the bottleneck to another area (which often comes as a surprise to everyone). And some situations are so counter-intuitive that formalistic mathematical models may offer added value. For example, complex heat exchange networks in chemical and petrochemical plants may benefit from "pinch technology" or other process optimization and modeling efforts.
However, there are some fairly common bottlenecks and solutions we present here. We'll briefly describe why they occur and how either modification or technology can eliminate them.
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Cooling Towers/Evap Condensers Glue Drying Bound Moisture |
Surface Moisture Terminal Moisture Vacuum |
