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.

01/02/2009 On the level Last year, we began a series of features on instrumentation and control, aimed at helping plant engineers to skill-up. In the first feature we covered pressure and flow equipment. In this second piece, we move on to level instruments - ... » Read More

01/02/2009 Maintec show What - Maintec exhibition and conference Where - NEC, Birmingham When - 17-19 March 2009 » Read More

01/02/2009 Lift ropes and lubrication When it comes to steel wire ropes for lifts and elevators, getting lubrication and maintenance right couldn't be much more critical. At the most basic level, all such ropes must be periodically checked for equal tensions, as well as for ... » Read More

01/02/2009 Electric Engineers It's often said that one of the biggest differences between plants in, say, the chemical or pharmaceutical industries, as opposed to those in power generation, is that the former are developed in a laboratory pilot (where the learning is ... » Read More

01/02/2009 Busting the dust Whether it's fumes from the manufacture or application of paints, solvents, chemicals and rubber, or dust from processes such as sanding, grinding or machining, plant engineers need to be concerned with correctly applied dust and fume ... » Read More

01/12/2008 Waste not, want not With legislation, under EC pressure, now forcing reductions in the quantity of municipal and industrial waste that goes to landfill, the relatively simple processes of collecting rubbish and tipping it into holes are having to be replaced ... » Read More

01/12/2008 Virtuoso performance It won't have escaped your attention that instrumentation and control is encroaching inexorably into our bailiwicks. It started in condition-based maintenance, with plant engineers using, for example, portable ultrasonic flowmeters, ... » Read More

01/12/2008 Trapped steam Pulp and paper mills are among our most energy- and emissions-intensive plants. Large quantities of steam are essential for many of its processes and the sad fact is that, because boilers, steam distribution systems, heat exchangers, ... » Read More

01/12/2008 Pump suction Selecting a pump is always about balancing several factors - for example, the volumes and contents to be pumped, the efficiency required and how frequently the pump will be run. But where space is at a premium, or the cost of changing ... » Read More

01/12/2008 Plant life matters Although the cost of components - such as rolling element bearings, rotors and fasteners - in hydraulic pumps is usually very small, compared to the list price of the pumps themselves, the cost of stopped production and any consequential ... » Read More

01/12/2008 Near zero emissions With the obvious exception of the global economic crisis and its insidious infection now of the ?real economy', recent months, and indeed years, have seen no greater issue than climate change. Governments and organisations around the world ... » Read More

01/12/2008 Hospital robots The robot revolution is underway and will be happening in a hospital near you very soon. So says Dr Patrick Finlay, director of Prosurgics, the company he founded back in 1995 to build medical robots. And he adds: 'Within the next 20 ... » Read More

01/12/2008 Greased lightning So-called environmentally friendly and synthetic lubricants have been available for some time now in ever growing ranges, tuned to the sheer diversity of industrial requirements. But, while the latter are now in widespread use, ... » Read More

01/12/2008 Discovery machine CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) - the planet's most powerful subatomic particle accelerator - made it into the record books when, at 10.28am on Wednesday 10 September, in front of the world's hyped-up media, the first beam was ... » Read More

01/12/2008 Breath of fresh air It is not uncommon for organisations to report that up to a third of their total factory energy bill can be attributed to compressed air plant. No surprise then that, with energy prices at record highs, reviews of compressed air systems ... » Read More

01/10/2008 Wet engineering With the likely passing of the European Environmental Liability Directive 2004/35/EC into British law in December - extending the existing 'polluter pays' principle to water sources, inhabited land, and protected species and habitats - ... » Read More

01/10/2008 Unreasonable engineering So how do you fancy a bit of unreasonable engineering? How about building a variable speed electric motor, rated at 2.5MW for pumping operations 3,000 metres down on the sea bed? Oh, and, for good measure, let's have it driven by an 11kV ... » Read More

01/10/2008 Turning the tide While wind farms, for most of us, are the iconic, if not entirely friendly, face of renewable energy, there's a quiet revolution readying itself for launch on an unsuspecting public. The new talking point will be marine turbines. Not only ... » Read More

01/10/2008 Sound of silence Ultrasonic tools are invaluable in detecting bearing failure, mostly because warnings appear well before any temperature rise or low frequency vibration can be seen. In fact, the technology recognises everything from early fatigue failure, ... » Read More

01/10/2008 Machinery directive How will you be affected by the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008 (SI2008/159), which come into force on 29 December 2009? If you're not involved with the design, manufacture or sale of machinery, you might think, ?not much', ... » Read More

01/10/2008 Got it covered? The scale of demand for innovative surface coatings, from sectors of manufacturing where component performance and longevity are key, demonstrates the potency of new technologies - and the sheer potential value for plant engineers ... » Read More

01/10/2008 Go easy on energy The oil price might fall below $100 per barrel, taking other energy prices down with it, but it may also climb to $200, according to energy industry insider Mike Brooks of St Omer Consulting. The point: plant managers should be planning ... » Read More

01/10/2008 Fluid thinking According to the Carbon Trust, UK industry spends around £9.5 billion on energy, with at least 40% of that consumed by process heating. 'Using straightforward techniques, between 5% and 10% of this could be saved, reducing spending on ... » Read More

01/10/2008 An inspector calls If you speak to engineer surveyors across the industry, chances are they'll mention two trends - one slightly surprising, the other plain worrying. On the surprising side of the equation, they'll probably mention that only now are some ... » Read More

01/10/2008 17th edition wiring The 17th Edition Wiring Regulations (BS 7671 2008) came into effect on 1 July, following publication back in January - and engineers and technicians are being warned that, this time, there are significant changes. » Read More