Control Automation Feature Library

Operations Engineer's library catalogues editorial features going back five years.

Access to all archive material is free to all, including non-members of IPlantE (the Institution of Operations Engineers) or BES (Bureau of Engineer Surveyors), under the umbrella of SOE (Society of Operations Engineers). However, to discover the many benefits of becoming an SOE member, please click here.

15/09/2022 Digitalisation workbench Information on its own is useless; it needs a context, and to be useful it needs to be translated into action. Modern storage and control systems can do wonderful things with sensor data – but that data needs to be in digital form. Here ... » Read More

15/08/2022 Energy management: a standards approach ISO 50001 - Energy Management Systems - Requirements with Guidance for Use, offers measurable cost benefits to organisations, allowing business to achieve greater transparency and promote best practice in energy management by demonstrating ... » Read More

15/08/2022 Plaudits for audits With costs surging, energy usage audits have never been more critical, especially as new developments in the IoT lower the barrier to carrying these out right across the estate. By Brian Wall » Read More

15/08/2022 Hello from me Steve Rees, chair, Institution of Plant Engineers, introduces himself. He writes: my membership in IPlantE began in 2006, when I started a part-time Open University course in general engineering. » Read More

15/08/2022 Maintaining uninterruptable power supplies (UPS) Uninterruptible power supplies play a key role when mains power fails, making a carefully planned maintenance regime all the more crucial. By Brian Wall » Read More

18/07/2022 From the ground up: aerospace MRO The aerospace industry has developed one of the most mature models for maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO). We look at how the process works and what future changes are coming. » Read More

18/07/2022 New faces With the decline of manufacturing in the UK, it is getting harder to find candidates for engineer surveyor roles that qualified in the traditional way, by apprenticing in an industry, then gaining experience and gaining qualifications. I ... » Read More

18/07/2022 Minding the store The trend of appointing third-party MRO service providers is gathering pace with the promise of cost savings and the reassignment of resources to core activities » Read More

18/07/2022 What's up with HAZOPs? A hazard and operability study (HAZOP) is a type of risk assessment used for chemical process systems at the design and planning stage. It was first created as part of ICI’s six-stage hazard study process in the 1960’s, and subsequently ... » Read More

18/07/2022 Blue, green or both? Decyphering hydrogen generation options The government has doubled its target for hydrogen production, from five to 10GW by 2030, as part of its new Energy Security Strategy. But how ready is UK industry? By Tom Austin-Morgan » Read More

18/07/2022 Minimising the risk of temperature control equipment summer downtime While the UK wasn’t really renowned for heatwaves, nearly every year a number of days see spikes in temperature upwards of 30°C, putting additional strain on the temperature control equipment at manufacturing sites across. With these ... » Read More

01/07/2022 Engineer first class Ex-REME engineer Eddie McLellan IEng has won the ‘engineering excellence’ category of the 2022 Scottish Ex-Forces in Business Awards. Here, he recounts his career within, and without, the Armed Forces » Read More

24/06/2022 Monster keeps major infrastructure project on track A Sulzer Channel Monster has been a lifeline for a large-scale wastewater treatment project in Vác, Hungary. Faced with the need to keep a municipal wastewater treatment plant in operation during a EUR 14.5 million upgrade, Hungarian ... » Read More

24/06/2022 Delivering high-quality solids – without any mix-up Ever present in the chemical processing industry, solid mixing and blending are among the most crucial operations that influence end product quality. By avoiding under- and over-processing, manufacturers can deliver superior chemicals ... » Read More

22/06/2022 Reducing pump maintenance with liquid gaskets and adhesives For those operating in processing sectors such as paper, power generation, chemicals, sugar, mining and oil and gas, adopting a proactive maintenance strategy is key to eliminating common failures modes and extending the useful life of ... » Read More

14/06/2022 Identifying equipment issues in gas flaring Flaring is used to manage the associated gas produced as a co-product during oil extraction, routinely or as the result of an unscheduled event. Routine flaring can be a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. Non-routine flaring ... » Read More

14/06/2022 Offshore, off carbon To reduce their carbon footprint, many offshore operators are converting their drilling rigs to run on electricity. We look at the whys and wherefores, and how this might work in practice. By Brian Wall » Read More

14/06/2022 Life among the cobots Designed to perform tasks in collaboration with workers, the use of cobots is rapidly expanding. Where do they compete and align with industrial robots – and, of some growing concern – with their human ‘co-workers’? By Brian Wall » Read More

01/06/2022 The rail detective: profile of former RAIB chief inspector Simon French Simon French OBE, chief inspector of the Rail Accident Investigation Branch, retired on 31 March 2022 after nearly 18 years at RAIB and 40 years in rail (to be replaced by Andrew Hall, formerly deputy chief inspector). On his penultimate ... » Read More

01/06/2022 Now showing Maintec returns to the NEC 8-9 June, with two days of conference presentations in two theatres, and more than 50 exhibitors. Products, organised alphabetically by selected exhibitors, are profiled below » Read More

17/05/2022 Rising up to the challenge The post-Grenfell Building Safety Bill aims to alter substantively how the welfare of high-rise buildings is managed – but the late-stage removal of the building safety manager role has caused some misgivings. By Brian Wall » Read More

17/05/2022 The carbon footprint of heating and cooling Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) is responsible for most of the greenhouse gas emissions from buildings, and a very significant share of all human-induced climate change. Its carbon footprint is largely a result of the ... » Read More

17/05/2022 Beyond REACH What does a government-imposed delay to the implementation of UK REACH regulations mean for chemical plants and their supply chains? By Steed Webzell » Read More

13/05/2022 The internet of pumps Smarter control of wastewater pump networks transforms performance, reliability and cost-efficiency, according to pump supplier Sulzer » Read More

19/04/2022 Inspection: screening for danger Simulants and an array of training devices are helping to prepare operatives in the battle to detect explosives, drugs, IEDs and other threats, such as the radioactive materials still inside the Fukushima and Chernobyl nuclear reactors. » Read More