Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Useful And Essential Facts About Pilot Plants

By Edward Foster


With each day that passes, new technologies are created. Also, products that are based on technology are created and put to commercial production by firms on a daily basis as part of product portfolio diversification. New products make sure that firms effectively compete with newer rival technologies and thrive in the market. Not each suggestion, however, that individuals or firms table can be commercialized prior to collecting enough information about it. Here are facts regarding Pilot plants.

Companies should engage in small scale production of new technologies or products before going into commercial production. A set up known as a pilot plant is usually used in doing this. This production system is pre-commercial and uses new production technology in the small scale production of products that are based on new technology. The major reason for doing this is to learn. This helps in obtaining the skills to be used in designing full-scale commercial products and production systems.

The products that are produced from these plants are usually real and can be used for various purposes. First, these products can be used as samples that can be used to test the market. The sample products are given to customers in the targeted market so that they can test them. After testing, customers give feedback, which is then based upon to improve the final product.

Apart from being used for testing the market, these samples could also be used to control quality. Here, company engineers test the samples to find out if they are of the required standards. The standards could be set internally by the company or by the government. If it is determined that samples not of the required standards, reengineering is done till they meet the standards.

The term pilot plant is a very relative one because these plants come in a wide range of sizes. However, one factor that remains is that they are smaller compared to full scale production plants. Because they are small and are meant for learning purposes, it is possible to scale them up or down. Scaling is done depending on the goal that needs to be achieved.

Cost and simplicity required to construct pilot factories varies with respect to specific instances. There are factories that are not sophisticated to the sense that they can use the stock lab equipment to construct laboratories. Some plant, on the flip side are expensive and very large. A sophisticated pilot plant can cover a lot of space measured in square feet. Their construction may cost millions of dollars too.

Usually, complex plants are custom-made and fabricated from instrumentation, process piping, and equipment. One can use such types of plants to train personnel. The knowledge gained from the pilot plant can then be applied by workers in real life circumstances as they work in full-scale plants.

There exist a number of methods that these plants employ in scaling down risks emanating from building big process factories. To begin with, computer simulations and semi empirical methods are employed in validation of assumptions and designs. Therefore, firms sidestep gambling with money prior to being sure about the feasibility of a certain process.




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