You are on the fastest route and your route is clear.
You should reach your destination in good time.

(Confident message from the 2015 Google GPS Voice Navigator)

 

PTOA READERS AND STUDENTS GONNA BE ALRIGHT!

Can you believe it?

In just the time it took to read and comprehend 93 PTOA Segments in the intended sequential order, PTOA Readers and Students know exactly what a career as a Process Operator entails and are continuing to pursue a clear route that may lead to the final destination of working in the process industries.

PTOA  Readers and Students just concluded the PTOA Heat Transfer Focus Study Area and learned how Process Operators use the principles of heat transfer to control the Process Variable Temperature while converting raw materials into valuable final products.

Otherwise stated, the following list of achievements can be added to the impressive list of PTOA Reader & Student achievements that appeared on PTOA Segment 57 entitled "Where Do We Go From Here? (#2)."

PTOA Readers and Students now possess:

• A fundamental understanding of Radiation, Conduction, and Convection and the parameters that impact these three modes of heat transfer.

 

• A fundamental understanding of how evaporative heat loss (aka: evaporative cooling) works.

 

• A fundamental understanding of how temperature-changing process industry equipment is designed to enhance heat transfer to increase or decrease process stream temperatures.

 

• A fundamental understanding of how Process Operators and Control Board Operators optimize the operation of temperature-changing process equipment, including identifying/anticipating potential heat transfer problems.

 

• A fundamental understanding of how ambient conditions impact temperature-changing process industry equipment ... and what can be done to mitigate or exploit local weather conditions to enhance heat transfer.

 

• A fundamental understanding of why and how Process Operators and Control Board Operators must optimize combustion air/oxygen for the duo purposes of enhancing heat transfer as well as to reduce harmful emissions.

Hey! High Five with Your Mentor! Not just everybody has the perseverance to keep on keepin' on learning!

 

And now ... time to move on and learn about how industrial process temperatures are detected, measured, and indicated!

 

NEXT UP: TEMPERATURE DETECTION, MEASUREMENT & INDICATION

The next PTOA Focus Study Area is the last one totally dedicated to the study of the Process Variable Temperature.

Hey, it feels like we've been here before!

PTOA Readers and Students who are reading the PTOA segments in the intended sequential order will realize that the PTOA experience is completing a circle.

This last PTOA Focus Study Area dedicated to the  Process Variable Temperature appears to end real close to the very beginning.

The first PTOA segment was all about trying to define just how the heck hot is hot ... remember?

 

 

The common, outside thermometer was given the fancy name of "temperature indicator"... or "TI" for short ... when installed in a process stream line.

 

Since that simple introduction to the Process Variable Temperature, PTOA Readers and Students have learned exactly what is meant by this kind of statement:

Process Operators and Control Board Operators rely upon TIs and TICs (Temperature Indicating Controllers) to provide vital process information such as:

How much temperature did the tube side process stream pick up in that shell and tube heat exchanger?

Should another fan be turned on/off ... or is the process stream exiting that fin fan condenser sufficiently cool/way too cool ... to be sent to storage?

Is that process stream flowing out of the condenser all liquid and therefore okay to be pumped ... or could some of the stream still be in the vapor state ... because that will cavitate the pump!

Is the catalyst bed temperature where it needs to be to change feedstock into the desired products?

Wow!

TIs and TICs sure help Process Operators make important processing decisions!

Ergo, modern Process Operators and Control Board Operators must possess a basic understanding about how temperature detecting/measuring/indicating instruments work.

 

LET'S GET ON WITH THE JOURNEY ALREADY!

The PTOA Focus Study on Temperature Detection/Measurement/Indication will include:

• Things you already know related to temperature detection/measurement/indication. PTOA Readers and Students will learn how much common, ordinary stuff is nowadays classified as "scientific" and "technological."

 

• Review of ISA designations for Temperature Elements (TE), Temperature Indicators, and Temperature Transmitters (TT) as well as "local" versus "remote" temperature instruments as indicated on PFDs and PIDs.

 

• Temperature instruments that use convection and conduction heat transfer to work. Common examples are the everyday mercury-in-glass thermometer, bi-metallic strips, capillary tubes(first introduced in PTOA Segment 14 entitled "I Just Gotta Get A Message To U") and other fluid filled devices like bourdon tubes.

 

• Electrical temperature instruments that use convection and conduction to work and make it possible to rapidly send an electrical signal to a control room. Common examples are thermocouples, RTDs (Resistance-Temperature Detectors), and thermistors.

 

• Temperature instrument devices that use radiation heat transfer to work. Hand held pyrometers are a common example.

 

After concluding this last PTOA Focus Study on the Process Variable Temperature, PTOA Readers and Students will begin the first PTOA Focus Study Area devoted to the Process Variable Pressure.

 

THE INTERFACE BETWEEN PROCESS OPERATORS
AND PROCESS INSTRUMENT TECHNICIANS

PTOA Readers and Students have arrived at an interface between the knowledge base required for Process Operators versus that required for Process Industry Instrument Technicians.

The more maintenanced-based and troubleshooting job description of the Instrument Technician was differentiated from that of the Process Operator in the PTOA Orientation Segment entitled Non-Process Operator Industrial Process Career Options.

Process Operators/Control Board Operators must be proficiently core competent in their understanding of process instrumentation because they must be able to:

• Recognize faulty instrument readings.
• Be able to write work orders that concisely and accurately describe where the fault lies in a process variable control loop or local instrument.

However, Process Operators and Control Board Operators are not expected to thoroughly understand the myriad technologies that are used in automated control systems.

Otherwise stated:

Process Operators can live perfectly fine, productive lives without thoroughly understanding things like:

• how to tune a control loop.
• what the difference between motion-balance and force balance means.
• how the electrical circuitry of a Wheatstone bridge works.

Future PTOA segments  will distinguish information that is mostly relevant and beneficial to Instrument Technicians with the designation "Instrument Tech Must-Knows."

PTOA Readers and Students who are not interested in the career field of Process Instrumentation can skip PTOA Segments that include the phrase "Instrument Tech Must-Knows" in the title.

However, PTOA Readers and Students who find they have an interest in the complementary career paths of Process Operations and Process Instrument Tech should read the PTOA Segments that include "Instrument Tech Must-Knows" in their title.

LET'S ROLL!

TAKE HOME MESSAGES: The upcoming PTOA Focus Study  features the measurement, detection, and indication of the Process Variable Temperature.

The PTOA Focus Study on Temperature Measurement, Detection, and Indication concludes the PTOA Focus Study Area that concentrates on the Process Variable Temperature.

Some temperature detection, measurement, and indication instruments use conduction and convection heat transfer to work and others use radiation.

Some temperature detection, measurement, and indication instruments generate electrical output that can rapidly send signals to a control room.

Process Operators and Control Board Operators must have a working knowledge of temperature detection, measurement, and indication.

Process Instrumentation Technicians must understand the fundamental operating principles and mechanics of instruments because they are responsible for repairing them. 

Upcoming PTOA segments that have more technical information than required for Process Operators will include the phrase "Instrument Tech Must-Knows" in their title.

PTOA Readers and Students who think they may be interested in pursuing industrial instrumentation need to read the "Instrument Tech Must-Know" PTOA Segments. All other PTOA Readers and Students can skip these PTOA segments.

©2016 PTOA Segment 00094
PTOA Process Variable Temperature Focus Study Area
PTOA Process Industry Automation Focus Study Area

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