Articles on this page were submitted by an Instrumentation and Electrical Technician at Archer Daniels Midland Co.
October 2008 Issue
Industrial processing and manufacturing plants have evolved and changed over the course of the last several decades; the plants were considerably different than they are today. The operation of the plants ten years ago had very little electrical and instrumentation automation in use. Many plants had electrical machines and processes that were operated manually and independent of each other. The manufacturing plants of today are controlled by highly automated computer systems; the electrical machines and processes are operated and controlled as a complete process and not independent of each other. The changes in automation used in the manufacturing plants of today have created a need for Instrumentation/Electrical Technicians (I/ET) who have training in the many different I/E areas. Over the course of the next several months, we will provide descriptions on many of the different I/E areas and what typical educational courses are utilized in each area along with what areas an I/E Technician might be involved with throughout a typical day.
Let’s start this month with some basics. What is an I/ET and what are the responsibilities? The responsibilities of an I/ET can range from day-to-day maintenance, repair activities and setup and calibration of instrumentation, to installation of new equipment. An I/ET will also have an opportunity to work in many different areas of plant automation – which can be electrical, instrumentation or a combination of both. We’ve briefly described what some of the responsibilities of an I/ET are, now let’s dig a little deeper and briefly talk about what it means to be an I/ET. An I/ET is a person that has the knowledge, skills and abilities to work on electrical and instrumentation equipment. Electrical equipment work can be any of the following: testing an electric motor, troubleshooting an electrical control circuit and replacing broken electrical conduit and wire, just to name a few. Instrumentation equipment work could be any of the following: testing of a control valve, troubleshooting an instrumentation control loop, setting up a new flow meter and checking calibration of a pH prob. Many of the different electrical and instrumentation hardware devices require some type of setup or configuration and most require a personal computer to perform setup, configuration, calibration, and in some cases, troubleshooting. Therefore, computer skills and knowledge are also an important skill for an I/ET to possess. Each of the electrical and instrumentation tasks previously mentioned require a wide range of knowledge and skills - most of which can be learned through the ADM I&E certification program at Richland Community College. The more specialized training will be done by training specialists from the various equipment manufacturers and is completed as on-the-job training as an I/ET.
It is our hope that this article has provided you with an overview of what an I/ET is and what some of the areas of responsibility might be. We will provide a more detailed look at many of the different areas of I/ET responsibility, skill and knowledge in future articles.
Please feel free to submit any questions you might have about I/ET under Questions & Answers.