Abstract
In conducting over many years the assessment of Control & Instrumentation (C&I) engineers applying for professional registration, it is apparent that significant gaps often existed in their fundamental technical and application knowledge.
Notwithstanding the normal variations in the ability of individuals, the academic route chosen and the subsequent training offered by employers will play a major part in the development of a well-rounded engineer.
Professionals following the craft apprentice/Higher National Certificate (HNC) route through technician training and who are able to obtain employment in an engineering design capacity will usually possess good practical C&I application skills. In contrast, their university graduate counterparts, although better equipped mathematically, may struggle in their formative years with the broad spectrum of practical application knowledge required.
C&I engineers need a good working knowledge of many subjects, including the wide range of field instruments and control systems available in a fast changing marketplace, materials selection, piping mechanics, fluid physics, industry-specific measurement, protection and control techniques/best practice, functional safety, hazardous area work, control systems architecture/application, data communications, installation design, engineering standards/codes of practice, inspection and testing, contractual awareness and much more.
Large companies with accredited graduate training programmes will usually make use of both in-house mentoring and external training, whereas smaller organisations are often much more reliant on the haphazard self-learning process.
Tech Talk is a series of papers designed as a ‘pull out’ reference library. The aim is to disseminate knowledge of both the fundamentals of measurement and control and its practical application. To this end, experienced engineers and manufacturing companies are cordially invited to share their knowledge for the greater good by submitting for publication, further papers that will be of interest to practising C&I design engineers and technicians. Publication guidelines are available on request from
This first paper in the series addresses the basics of measurement. The co-authors are David W Otterson CEng, FInstMC, and John E Edwards CEng, FIChemE, who has published several papers and books on process simulation, instrumentation and control.