It was a revelation when I first learned that people could own air compressors. That experience, as well as my experiences of learning that people can own power washers, power tools or power anything, really, was the impetus for the restructuring of my understanding of my parents’ abilities as handy people. I was always impressed by my mom’s thrift and my dad’s elocution, but it Continue reading
Imagine the following situation. You are the pilot of a commercial airliner on a sold-out flight. You are carefully monitoring all of the instrumentation in the cockpit, and so far the flight is going smoothly. Unbeknownst to you, though, a piece of a decrepit satellite that broke off in orbit is on a collision course with the body of your aircraft. The piece strikes the fuselage and causes a breach in the cabin. Immediately, the sensors in the cockpit indicate that there has been a loss in cabin pressure, and the passengers must be notified that they need to don their oxygen masks. You then make an Continue reading
Pressure switches are valued because of the control they give their operators over the systems in which they’re included. In an air compressor, for example, the pressure switch is triggered when the pressure within an enclosure reaches a certain reading, either activating or deactivating the equipment that causes compressed air to be forced into the enclosure. In such cases, the switch prevents the Continue reading
There are many different kinds of pressure switches. This is because there are many different kinds of applications in which the measurement and regulation of pressure is necessary. Consider the following examples. Suppose that you work for a company that sells propane gas to supermarkets and other outlets that vend smaller propane tanks to consumers. Because your company buys and stores propane in very large quantities, your company needs access to storage equipment that can accommodate your stock. The largest propane storage tanks can be tens of feet in length and can store very large quantities of propane. These large storage tanks are equipped with pressure switches and other equipment that helps monitor Continue reading
Every pressure gauge serves essentially the same purpose: to convert a reading of pressure in an enclosed system into a signal that can be read by humans or a control system. The differences between pressure switches are found in other areas. They are distinguished from each other based on their size, shape, configuration, what kinds of pressurized materials they are used to measure, their composition, their cost, their reading type (metric or non-metric) and many other Continue reading
Before a pressure switch can send a signal to monitoring or control equipment, it must first generate an electrical signal to send to that equipment. The generation, strength and type of signal are expressions of the kind of pressure to which the pressure switch is reacting. The process of converting the mechanical energy that gets registered by the switch to the electrical energy that gets reported by the switch is called transduction. Transduction is, simply, the conversion of Continue reading
Yesterday, I took my 1997 Ford Escort in for an oil change. I know very little about cars, so I almost never undertake even the most basic maintenance tasks by myself. Here’s what I do know about my car. I know that it needs gas in order to run. I know the battery has to be charged if I want the engine to start. I do know where the wiper fluid goes, and I actually put duct tape on the rusty spots in order to keep the doors from rusting into oblivion. That’s about it, though. So, when I noticed that my mileage exceeded the number on Continue reading
Emergency shutdown systems are lifesavers, literally and figuratively. An emergency shutdown system is designed to automatically respond to crisis conditions in order to prevent or contain the failure of a system. Different kinds of equipment that involve the use of emergency shutdown systems tend to have a few things in common. First, they all tend to be expensive, and their emergency shutdown systems are designed so that an error and the consequences of that error can be contained so as to limit damage to the system. Many varieties of equipment that involve the use of Continue reading
Pressure switch image courtesy of Ashcroft.
Automation is the wave of the future for industry. As the words “lean manufacturing” work their way into the vocabularies of a higher number of professionals, automation and all of the components that contribute to it are increasing in their popularity within industry. Manufacturers see the benefits in terms of reduced labor costs and increased efficiency, and the transition to automation simply makes sense. But the fact is that the trend toward automation has been a long time in the making, and Continue reading
Differential pressure switch image courtesy of SOR, Inc.
Differential pressure switches can seem difficult to understand at first. To the layperson, their name doesn’t immediately indicate what they are or what they do. The average person might have heard what a pressure switch is and does; it’s a metering and control utility that can control the flow of something and in some cases provide a meter reading as well. But knowing the difference between Continue reading