Test and Measurement 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.

07/06/2010 The heat is on There is a world of difference between art, black art and science, but thermal cameras are ready to move from the former to the latter. Brian Tinham explains » Read More

01/03/2010 Sensing invisible hazards There is a new state-of-the-art in toxic and flammable gas sensor technologies that changes the art of what's possible. Dr Tom Shelley reports » Read More

01/03/2010 Pump prediction Modern non-invasive motor condition monitoring equipment is proving its worth at Wessex Water. Brian Tinham talks to operational services manager Dave Durkin » Read More

01/03/2010 Automatic for the people REM probably didn't have plant automation on their minds when they released that album in 1992, but computing for the masses is reinvigorating control, writes Brian Tinham » Read More

01/03/2010 Choppers cut Severn Trent costs Vaughan chopper pumps, supplied by P&M Pumps, have cut costs caused by unplanned maintenance at Severn Trent Water's Netheridge, Gloucester treatment works, and are now also achieving significant savings on energy consumption. » Read More

01/01/2010 Seeing is preventing An ability to anticipate mechanical breakdowns before they impact plant performance can be invaluable in minimising unplanned downtime. Dr Tom Shelley reports » Read More

01/01/2010 Maintec 2010 show Getting maintenance right, and squeezing that bit extra out of existing and new plant, is the name of the game for 2010. Brian Wall suggests taking a day at Maintec 2010 » Read More

01/12/2009 Opening up on control valves There are three key steps to ensuring that control valves don't cause process plant instability. Mark Perry explains the problems and their solutions » Read More

01/12/2009 Naval sultans The Royal Navy turns out some of the smartest, most able plant engineers on the planet. Brian Tinham takes a look at HMS Sultan and finds out the secrets of success » Read More

01/10/2009 It’s a (dangerous) gas Gas detection is critical on a wide range of plants, in a wide range of industries. Brian Tinham looks at the issues with installation and particularly maintenance » Read More

01/10/2009 Babies and bathwater Plant, equipment, instrumentation and the regulatory frameworks have all been evolving to meet the challenges of pollution and climate change. Brian Tinham examines the issues » Read More

01/08/2009 ICL Plastics disaster With the publication last month of Lord Gill's inquiry report into the ICL Plastics Glasgow disaster, Brian Tinham reviews the lessons to be learned for plant engineers everywhere. » Read More

01/06/2009 Propeller head Ask any engineer about electric motors and most of us visualise low- or medium-voltage three-phase equipment, either precision synchronous motors, driving machines or, more likely, standard asynchronous induction motors running pumps, fans ... » Read More

01/06/2009 Instrument aware Maintenance engineers used to have a lot in common with fire fighters. Now, the job is increasingly about heading off trouble before it starts - and on highly automated plants, this predictive approach is possible, thanks largely to ... » Read More

01/06/2009 Better crystal balls With a breakdown in plant sometimes so catastrophic (failures of lubrication pumps have resulted in shutdowns of more than a year before new parts could be made), it is astonishing that so few plant engineers make use of increasingly ... » Read More

01/04/2009 In the hot seat So we've got pressure, flow and level measurement under our belts (see Plant Engineer, November/December 2008 and January/February 2009). Time to move on to temperature - and although there are very few sensing technologies, there is huge ... » Read More

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 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

01/12/2008 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 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 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 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

01/10/2008 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 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