Industrial integrated plant + equiptment / control systems / maintenence

theroadblock · Jun 27, 2012

Just out of interest really, how many of you guys have ever come across / worked in the above mentioned environment? i personally trained as an installation electrician as i guess the majority on this forum have, again i personally prefer working on control systems and maintenence > installation but which did you prefer? discuss. :wacko:

Engineer54 · Jun 27, 2012

Was trained man and boy in the in the industrial side of our industry. Yes i would choose industrial over house bashing without a second thought!! But then again, the bigger commercial projects are, or can be, just as fulfilling technically as the industrial sector and getting more technical by the year!!.... lol!!

Des 56 · Jun 27, 2012

Trained as a maintenance spark.but spent virtually all my career doing all types of installation

I personally prefer not to work."period"

Unfortunately real life means I would prefer maintenance for the actual work.but prefer installation because of its other superior reasons,freedom from being the "unit of labour" that maintenance entails being the main one

theroadblock · Jun 27, 2012

Engineer54 said:
Was trained man and boy in the in the industrial side of our industry. Yes i would choose industrial over house bashing without a second thought!! But then again, the bigger commercial projects are, or can be, just as fulfilling technically as the industrial sector and getting more technical by the year!!.... lol!!

Unfortunately i havent had the pleasure of working on one of the bigger commercial projects but i do hear some good things from others i went college with

. do you ever find that companies that employ maintenence electricians expect us to be an expert in every field eg. (PLC programmer / ICT technician / instrumentation specialist / and a fitter at times lol!). ofcourse i have no problem with attempting to learn these areas since i love working with control systems, but it seems you need to be a 'jack of all trades' in a maintenence environment.

Engineer54 · Jun 27, 2012

theroadblock said:
Unfortunately i havent had the pleasure of working on one of the bigger commercial projects but i do hear some good things from others i went college with . do you ever find that companies that employ maintenence electricians expect us to be an expert in every field eg. (PLC programmer / ICT technician / instrumentation specialist / and a fitter at times lol!). ofcourse i have no problem with attempting to learn these areas since i love working with control systems, but it seems you need to be a 'jack of all trades' in a maintenence environment.

haha!! I'm going back too many years now, to have been caught up in this multi trade fiasco, although my training did indeed cover all aspects and disciplines of other trades. The fields that you mention, are part and parcel of being a maintenance electrician in an industrial automated production enviroment. Those that think industrial maintenance is just going round changing flu tubes and the like, would be in for a very rude awakening!! lol!!!

In those day's you just mucked in with the other trades, as they needed it, we were a team. We didn't need to be told you HAVE TO do this and that outside of our discipline... lol!!

theroadblock · Jun 27, 2012

Engineer54 said:
haha!! I'm going back too many years now, to have been caught up in this multi trade fiasco, although my training did indeed cover all aspects and disciplines of other trades. The fields that you mention, are part and parcel of being a maintenance electrician in an industrial automated production enviroment. Those that think industrial maintenance is just going round changing flu tubes and the like, would be in for a very rude awakening!! lol!!!

In those day's you just mucked in with the other trades, as they needed it, we were a team. We didn't need to be told you HAVE TO do this and that outside of our discipline... lol!!

lucky for some lol, its all about multiskilling nowadays im only lucky that my (work tutor

) 'senior electrician' at my place was also trained originally as an installation electrician and is in the same boat as me. hes very stuck in his ways but hes taught me oh so much and i am to step into his role in years to come hopefully lol. and yes rude awakening is the description you could use haha.. when i went for my interview at my current place of work only being half way through my apprentiship my boss opened one of the electrical control cabinets in front of me and apparantly i turned white lol! nowadays ( year and half later + qualified ) i am now maintenence guy electrically / mechanically for a whole factory on shift by myself lol. gotta love fault finding!

Silly Sausage · Jun 27, 2012

I got into all this in probably not the usually route.
Originally a C programmer, genius by the way but can't stand working in an office.
Got my Elec Eng qual @ 36, couldn't get a job for ages but finally got a break working for a total utter pr&&& as an Instrument Tech on a chemical plant. Loved it, read and taught myself as much as I could do...

Control & Instrumentation is the one for me.
Truth be told, I'd prefer to be HV man like our Tony.

La Poste · Jun 27, 2012

Archy Styrigg said:
Got my Elec Eng qual @ 36

Archy what qualification did you get, Degree, HNC?

theroadblock · Jun 27, 2012

Archy Styrigg said:
Control & Instrumentation is the one for me.

^ This. What would you reccomend my next step coursewise, to go down this route? i would like to learn as much about control systems as i can since i love working with them! the sky is the limit and id love to be the guy designing these systems someday

.

Lacy · Jun 27, 2012

I trained as an apprentice with Lucas. Their electricians were divided into installation electricians and maintenance electricians. I did work for both sections but did most on the maintenance which I much preferred. After Lucas I worked for another company that held contracts with the likes of Leyland trucks, Jaguar cars, Landrover etc. working mainly on the maintenance of their automated stores facility which got me in on the early days of PLC and also maintenance and calibration of the Landrover engine test facility. Very, very enjoyable And I would recommend industrial maintenance/control to anyone who enjoys having their brains stretched!

Silly Sausage · Jun 27, 2012

I think there are C&G courses for C&I for starters.
If you've got any Eng quals, just apply for anything in sight, it's what I did, garbage money, but...
Just need to get your foot in the door first (hahaha the easy part!) then if your good and prepared to travel...
Most of my jobs came from when I was in.

alarm man · Jun 27, 2012

theroadblock said:
^ This. What would you reccomend my next step coursewise, to go down this route? i would like to learn as much about control systems as i can since i love working with them! the sky is the limit and id love to be the guy designing these systems someday .

i think there is or used to be a c&g course for controls,my mate was on one while we were on the 236,we worked for similar companies,done quite a bit of panel building and installation on controls,most lads there were just sparks like yourself and some were brilliant at designing systems without ever setting eyes on a controls course,its just expeirence in that area you need,which is the tricky part.