Can you recall some of the more extreme reactions from the general public when the idea of compulsory seat belts was first mooted? They ranged from: 'No one can make me put one of those things on' to...
Noise/Vibration Control
Electric motors use two-thirds of all electricity consumed by industry, so any technology capable of cutting this drain on resources has got to be a good thing. Yet, despite proven and significant...
Fans
Although oil prices have come down, the recession is forcing organisations of all kinds to keep on cutting energy costs. One consequence is increasing numbers of companies seeing energy saving as a...
Lubricants/Greases
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...
Temperature measurement
What has the opening of the £200 million second target station (TS2) at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory's ISIS pulsed neutron source got to do with plant engineers? More than most mere mortals -...
Drives
Under instruction, and on making almost my first thorough examinations of lifts, I recall how my instructors stressed the importance of looking for ?rouging' between the strands of the wire ropes....
Ropes/Cables
Much more comfortable safety gloves and shoes, ultra lightweight eye glasses and overalls, an ingenious plastic drum barrow and clearer warnings on gas detectors were among highlights at the Health...
Personal Protective Equipment
Late in 2006, an RSA (Royal & SunAlliance) engineer surveyor was involved in the testing of safety valves at a coal-fired power station on a boiler return service. After testing was complete, a major...
valve actuators
The benefits of keeping hydraulic fluid and compressed air clean are well known to time-served plant engineers. They include higher system reliability, longer component life and improved efficiency,...
Compressors
SAFed (the Safety Assessment Federation) care' - which is why SAFed does recommend is still reporting 4.5% immediate defects to HSE after thorough examinations by its members. That's around 14,000...
Lifts
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...
Fume Extraction
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...
Biomass Plant