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Here Is Information On Pilot Plants

By Edward Foster


New technologies are developed every day that passes. In addition to that, new tech-based products are developed and put to commercial production by companies everyday as part of diversifying their product portfolios. New products are meant to ensure that companies continue to survive in the market and compete effectively with other newer technologies produced by rivals. However, not every idea that a company/individual comes up with is worth commercializing before adequate data has been collected about it. This is worth knowing about 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 items that emanate from pilot factories are often real and there are a number of reasons for which they can be used. To begin with, these items can serve as samples that can be employed in gauging the market. In order to do this, the sample commodities are handed to consumers in the market being targeted. The customers then give feedback that companies base on to improve the final commodity.

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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