Investigação de causas raiz de falha em uma centrífuga de uma indústria de processamento de alimentos

Abstract

This work presents the case study of catastrophic failure of an oil washer centrifuge in a food production and processing industry in the city of Uberlândia, using as a basis an investigation carried out using the RCA method (Root Cause Analysis) and as root causes that have been extracted. Firstly, a bibliographic review on Process Safety is presented, which summares the main pillars that support the theme, and emphasizes the elements of Asset Integrity and Incident Investigations that will be most used throughout this work. Subsequently, the subject Human Performance related to the performance of employees in associations is developed, also involving the context of process safety. Then, to support the study, the event is contextualized in a simple and objective way to improve the understanding of the situation and the main parameters adopted. The methodology used in the investigation is then presented and discussed so that it is possible to have a complete analysis of the developments and their root causes. In the results and discussions, the root causes found in the investigation are mechanical problems in the locking ring of the centrifuge; it’s operation with acidic water and issues related to the acid dosage control and lack of structured process in the company to manage failure investigation. These causes are analyzed on the perspectives of the asset integrity element that is within the macro theme of process safety, and also on the human performance theme within an organization. It is evident from this analysis that even though there are deficiencies in the integrity management of the analyzed asset, if the subject of human performance were considered, the failure could still have been anticipated and consequently mitigated or avoided. Finally, the work is concluded by mentioning the other possibilities for improvements both in the scope of process safety and in the performance of individuals, so that incidents such as the one presented can be increasingly avoided.