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Electrical Instrumentation Engineer
- Thread starter Achor123
- Start date
Generally his/her responsibilities will be;
Calibration: Keeping track of scheduled calibration periods on all sensors and how they need to be calibrated.
Troubleshooting: Figuring out any system problems caused by failed transducers.
Design: Assist with transducer selection for new systems.
Maintenance: Keep track of new transducer availabilities and improvements and decide when to replace and upgrade existing ones.
Understand and review intrinsic saftey aspects of the plant's controls.
Understand and review EXP aspects of the plant's controls.
A clear understanding of the controllers will be required, that is the computer controllers that most of the transducers will report to, so that instrumentation troubleshooting can extend to the controller.
Valve actuators must be understood.
A *good* controls engineer will have a very clear understanding of the plant's process. This is vital so that tranducers can be properly selected, and for saftey in understanding what is lurking on the other side of the pipe.
Also the types of transducer interfaces that exist:
Current transducers.
Voltage transducers.
Digital transducers.
Signaling protocols like: Hart, ethernet, RS-232, RS-485,CAN, DeviceNet, Fieldbus, Modbus, IDNET.
What am I leaving out?
Calibration: Keeping track of scheduled calibration periods on all sensors and how they need to be calibrated.
Troubleshooting: Figuring out any system problems caused by failed transducers.
Design: Assist with transducer selection for new systems.
Maintenance: Keep track of new transducer availabilities and improvements and decide when to replace and upgrade existing ones.
Understand and review intrinsic saftey aspects of the plant's controls.
Understand and review EXP aspects of the plant's controls.
A clear understanding of the controllers will be required, that is the computer controllers that most of the transducers will report to, so that instrumentation troubleshooting can extend to the controller.
Valve actuators must be understood.
A *good* controls engineer will have a very clear understanding of the plant's process. This is vital so that tranducers can be properly selected, and for saftey in understanding what is lurking on the other side of the pipe.
Also the types of transducer interfaces that exist:
Current transducers.
Voltage transducers.
Digital transducers.
Signaling protocols like: Hart, ethernet, RS-232, RS-485,CAN, DeviceNet, Fieldbus, Modbus, IDNET.
What am I leaving out?
Job titles can be really misleading, but my guess would be about the same as itsmoked's. I'd throw in being able to read and understand Process(Piping) and Instrumentation Diagrams.
If you're talking about a refinery, you'd want to pick up a little organic chemistry to understand the process.
Most of the buzz these days centers on the digital side of instrumentation including software and communications, but there's still a need for engineers who understand the basic transducers involved, and of course the process itself.
If you're talking about a refinery, you'd want to pick up a little organic chemistry to understand the process.
Most of the buzz these days centers on the digital side of instrumentation including software and communications, but there's still a need for engineers who understand the basic transducers involved, and of course the process itself.
- Thread starter
- #4
One friend of mine had that title in the Navy in the late '70s. His job was going around tapping the guages with the plastic end of a screw driver to make sure the needles weren't stuck! He never got a degree, but because he had that title he later became an Instrumentation Designer for Chevron and several other oil companies since. He just retired last year after 'faking it' for 30 years!
"Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more."
Nikola Tesla
"Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more."
Nikola Tesla
- Thread starter
- #6
So part of insrumentation as an expalnation your friend would give is tapping the guages with the plastic end of a screw driver to make sure the needles weren't stuck!REally interesting!!!! He must have been good at this tapping to last fo thirty years.
That is a humurous one Jraef.
Achor
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