Topics in Process control

Rahul

May I suggest that you find out about S88.01 - Models and Terminology for Batch Control Here is a page of links

"Crawling around in dirt doing useful things".

No kidding -- unless you work in a union shop you're going have occasions where you can be much more useful if you get your hands dirty. If there's time in your program I'd aggressively pursue a job in a manufacturing plant, either as an intern to the engineering staff or as a worker.

Hello Tim,

Agree. Nothing beats practical experience.

What also helps is to spend some time finding out which the prevalent suppliers of gear are, which products they have and how it is all used. The most elaborate academic solution is only as good as the chances to get the required hardware. It's like the tunnel diode and unijunction oscillators we learned about in college, nice schematics but you couldn't buy the parts anywhere without taking out a 2nd mortgage.

Regards, Joerg

!!! As a person who does 'machinery and automation' in a structural composite manufacturing company; "Crawling around in dirt doing useful things" is probably the 'big bucks' part of my role...

between 'we thought of this great idea' and 'products going out the door' lies many other 'we thought of this great idea's'

this includes - we'll put in a mixing system for 'that'; but here we need 2 guys wiping it with a rag; then the robot will drill some holes in it; then this other machine will squirt glue at it, but it needs a human to line up the holes properly...and so on

And many "Oh drat, I was so darn sure it would work" :-)

Which brings up a point that isn't taught enough in schools and neglected in many industries: Machine vision. That has enabled us to build machines that could truly do it all alone. Until something on the machine broke, that is, but that can be prevented by PM. We could position stuff to within 5um even though people from "the leading companies in the field" told us the contrary. Basically, we loaded her up, closed the door and hit the big button. Then after lots of hissing and buzzing the completed sub-assemblies were unloaded, inspected and moved to the next machine.

Regards, Joerg

Yes...sometimes months of OH Drat!!

Indeed, I must look more at MV :)

and your point of 'leading companies in the field' is good too

Hello Fulliautomatix,

That was the whole reason why even my final project for the MS was a CCD camera and matching VME bus interface. The commercial selection of cameras was rather pathetic in performance so we figured it could be done better. And it could indeed be done.

Regards, Joerg

I must admit that I probably only used about 5% of my engineering degree. I reckon I learned more in my first year on the job than I did in all my years at uni.

And mate.. if you have plenty of time at college.. you need to drink more.