Paul Brake Articles
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Design First, Build Later
2/16/2018
Sounds simple. It makes sense. But far too many people do not do this. They put together an idea, a process, but fail to take the design to completion before starting to build. Cutting corners always comes at a price. There is an old saying in Project Management, “You can have it good, fast, or cheap. Pick any TWO”. Cutting corners will bump your cost, decrease quality, or possibly both.
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The Bells And Whistles Of Automation: What to Expect When You’re Commissioning
3/20/2017
Getting systems online is tough enough without unnecessary alarms and shutdowns, but the safety and visibility of operations are also paramount. During the commissioning process, balance is critical.
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Automation 101: Curing Automation Myths
12/15/2015
Automation is a wonder and a dark art to most of the world. Even companies who have large amounts of automation within their own facilities often have misconceptions about how it works.
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Corrosion Issues = Planning Issues
12/1/2015
There indeed is a desperate need for a corrosion science. We have all seen perfect, shiny new equipment quickly rot and deteriorate in the field. Put a new motor in a pulp mill and two years later you cannot even read the label on it.
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Automation 101: The 7 Habits Of Highly Automatable Systems
11/13/2015
When we automate, we are really just mechanizing individual tasks, controlling that task with some form of computerization, and linking those tasks together in what is called system integration.
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The Journey To Predictive Maintenance
8/31/2015
With the digital age fully upon us, it’s time for treatment plants to evolve beyond preventative maintenance and embrace predictive maintenance.
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Automation 101: Design For Operation
1/16/2015
We hear many paradigms in the design world — design for manufacture, design for assembly, etc. What we don’t often hear is design for operation.
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Automation 101: Open Loop Control
12/8/2014
There is no argument that automation can be very expensive and that we have a fiduciary responsibility to our clients to provide the most economical solution possible. Every output, every input, every facet of your automation design will cost you something. There are no free rides, not even for us. But in our zest for cost savings, in our endless quest to make bricks without straw, we can quite easily short change ourselves.
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Automation 101: What Are You Really Controlling?
11/17/2014
We build big, shiny, fancy control panels with letters and number after their names like NEMA 4X.
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Automation 101: The Dangers Of Hand/Off/Auto
10/20/2014
When we automate we invariably offer our clients and their operations staff the benefit of Hand/Off/Auto functionality for all the components on our systems. To those new to automation it allows an operator or maintenance worker to remove a piece of equipment, like a pump or blower for example, from the oversight and control automated controller (MCC, PLC, etc.) and operate it manually while it is still installed.