Person Who Changes Computers That Control Wet Stuff

10 Jan 2019 at 21:18 // under Chemical Engineering Process Control Simply Explained

I have read lots of things in the last week talking about how we should write simpler and not to trust things that are written in a confusing way or using long words.

I know that I can be bad at this and so I would like to try and write about my job using only simple words. Simple words are the top 1000 words used most often. To write this page I am using simple writer by XKCD¹.

My Job

I work in a big place that makes stuff to burn in engines. I work in the control room, a room in the middle of the place which has lots of computers and the people in there can make the stuff outside do what they want it to do. My job is to change the computers so that the other people can do their job.

Here are some of the things that I make or change to do this.

Controllers

Outside lots of stuff is checked by the computers, these are known as readings. Readings can be how hot something is, how fast it is moving, how much wet stuff is a place or how hard the stuff is pressed against the walls. There are also lots of things that can get in the way of the wet stuff to control how fast the wet stuff moves.

When you put together a reading and a thing that gets in the way, they make a controller. The controller will try to keep the reading at the point where someone wants it.

I have to tell the computer which way to move the thing that gets in the way to change the reading. I also have to tell the computer how fast to move it. Someone else will then tell the computer what the reading should be.

Pictures on screens

To let the people in the room know what is happening outside, we make pictures on the screens. These pictures have lots of numbers on them telling them how hot things are, how fast things are moving and other things.

The people who are trying to control the stuff outside can also use these pictures to tell the computer what they want the numbers to be. These pictures can change colour This is also not in the top 1000 words but the US way to write it is. when the numbers are bad.

Shouting computers

Things to tell the people when bad stuff happens

Sometimes the stuff outside does not do what we want it to do and the controller doesn't control right. When this happens, the people who are trying to control the stuff need to know about it. The computer can make a loud noise and tell the person something is not right.

I tell the computer what numbers are bad and how loud to shout to the person looking after it.

I can also tell the computer to ignore some numbers when we can't read them right or that the number is OK this time. This stops the computer shouting too many times, which would cause the people to not listen to it.

1. This is not in the top 1000 words but it is the name of the writer ↩

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