Illuminating hazardous and explosive environments can be quite a technical matter. Codes specify the technical solutions appropriate to the risks. By Toby Clark
Lighting
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 Acquisition
Condition monitoring of mechanical equipment – anything with rotating, oscillating or otherwise moving components – relies on vibration measurement. The sensors that pick up vibration have their own...
Sensors
If you have ever tried to push a box across a floor, building up effort only for it to suddenly slide rapidly and easily, you have experienced ‘stiction’; it can lead to mechanical motion control...
control valves
Crucial parts of the steam supply system, these simple components let out water and condensate, but their failure could have a significant effect. By Toby Clark
Steam Generation/Equipment
Plant operators are moving away from conventional diesel-powered equipment and into alternatives; but the reasons for this change are varied. Some want to reduce their carbon footprint for reasons of...
Batteries
Emergency shutdown valves may be the last line of defence against a major incident occurring in a pressurised system. Little wonder specifications and maintenance are tightly regulated. By Toby Clark
valve actuators
Anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities are becoming ever more common in the UK, as a means of generating energy, in the form of biogas, from agricultural waste products that would otherwise contribute to...
Fire Protection
The ‘hydrogen economy’ refers to the way hydrogen — the lightest and simplest of elements — could become a central pillar of a carbon-neutral society that still allows the economy to thrive. In...
Petrochemical
Vibration analysis is a powerful way of looking at rotating machinery, not just for one-off diagnosis of a problem but for ongoing machine condition monitoring. There are recognised routes to learn...
Vibration Monitoring
Although touted as more eco-friendly than liquid fuels, there’s a less benign side to methane, the main ingredient of natural gas. And that relates to its effect when it escapes before combustion,...
Engines
An advanced computing system aims to improve utilities’ ability to detect blockages that might otherwise lead to sewage pollution incidents, reports Toby Clark
Data Acquisition