Controls Engineer Career Guide and Counseling

Question: Project Controls Engineer Vs. Project Controls Analyst.? I work in the oil & gas and I wana progress my career further. So while searching for jobs, I found that in US/Canada the titles most advertised are Project Controls Analyst whereas, in UK I come accross a lot of Project Controls Engineer vacancies. (I know theres a lot of misuse of the word 'Engineer' in the UK). I was wondering if its just similar jobs with different titles or is the nature of work different in both? I'm a non-engineering graduate.

Answer: Not only can you not tell if the two positions are the same or similar, you can't be sure what the work entails. Project controls could refer to instrumentation or to cost, quality or schedule controls. You need to job description to fully understand the scope of the title.

Question: I am an electrical and control engineer (13 yrs exp) interested in migrating to Holland. What are the salaries I would like to know the salary range for experienced electrical engineer in the Netherlands. I also would need all the immigration information possible, accommodation opportunities close to Amsterdam, and what the living expenses and taxation is like.

Answer: Below some links to sites you might find interesting. First is about salaries, its in dutch,sorry, on the right below the salary scales you see "volgende 10" Volgende meaning Next, so click on that and see if your qualification on engineering is there with the approriate years of working experience. Second link is of the Tax administration, its in English. Third is a sight for British Expats. Cost of living is cheaper here then in the UK. You need to register with the local counsil of where you are living (in Holland), you need your passport and birthcertificate (the large one) and get a 'uittreksel van bevolkingsregister' (copy of your registration) for bank and BSN (see below) number purposes. (a copy is about €11). You need an address to apply for a BSN (Sofi) number, which is like a uk insurance number. Its a number to which all your personal information is linked for Tax purposes. You phone up to the Belastingdienst (tax office) for an appointment, go to assigned office with your passport, copy of registration and if no strange history, you should have a number within 20 mins. Then you are legal to work here. With that BSN number, passport and (another if they keep your copy of registration at Tax office) copy of registration you can open an account at a Dutch bank. Which you'll need for Tax, salary and bills etc. (Try Rabobank or ING). You do NOT have to report to the local police, what ever other ppl write on here. Due to the new (from January 2006) legislation on EU movement , rules have changed quite a bit. Obviously scholing and qualifications will help you to a better job. It can otherwise be very difficult. You can also try temp work. Language is not so much a problem in the bigger cities, all Dutch ppl speak some English. It might be more difficult to find a suitable job though. Try Googling enginering companies you know from the UK and see if they got a branche in Holland. Make sure you check insurance. Here you need to register with a Insurance company, for which you pay a monthly fee that will cover 'normal' medical bills (dental is extra, etc). If you find a company to work for they could have a company account at a certain insurance company, which means you get a discount on the fee. You do get a tax benefit if your salary is under a certain amount, which covers some of your monthly fee. Check it out on: http://www.toeslagen.nl/particulier/zorg… . (Not sure it has english on it). As far as I know, if you pay dutch tax, you are allowed to claim benefits. I dont know anything about accomodation around Amsterdam, sorry. I'd say Google it :-) . Good Luck.

Question: What is the best way to become a Sr. process control engineer? I graduated three years ago and would like to know the best method to take my career to the next level. There is so much out there to cover and it's impossable to know it all. What is a good systematic approach to become a better process control engineer

Answer: I presume that you are already working as a process control engineer and in that case, if you are doing well and a vacancy arises, you will be in reckoning. Find out what exactly are the differences in responsibilities and skill sets between that position and yours. Try to bridge that gap through Continuing Education.

Question: My first job as a controls engineer. How do experience engineers capture I/O's for devices in a system? I am trying to capture I/O's for devices like valves, pumps with and without vfd, motors with overload...things like that. I also notice on previous projects from other engineers, the I/O's they had captured for pumps had 2in/out and analog 1in/out. I dont understand really why there would be 2 in/out for a pump. I know that an analog in/out would mean that they have something controlling the motor through a VFD. So, if anyone can tell me how many I/O's for each devices I had mentioned above and describe the functional of each I/O, I would appreciate it. Oh, and the system I'm working on is a CIP system (clean in place syst) and what the pump does it pumps water from a supply tank and is controlled by a VFD. Another pump is a return pump with out a VFD. We also have a motor in the system, that is an agitator triggered through a limit switch. So what I'm really looking for are the rule of thumb from experienced engineers when they try to capture I/O's of a system. if you *....if you need any clarifications on my questions...let me know...otherwise...THANKS! to amansscientiae: I deleted the same question I asked coz you posted an answer asking to be more specific and which I did by adding more info on my previous question...but somehow it showed it was also out of your league coz you couldnt answer it so...if you can't answer it ...get lost! You have no input to my question...and i might just REPORT YOU. To others, I am looking for advise NOT to do my job. If you read my question, I am looking for an experience engineer that can guide or show some rule of thumb that they can pass down to new engineers. amansscientiae, seems to be having some power trip with the question i'm asking.

Answer: I’m not sure what you mean by “capture I/O's for devices� But it sounds like you are trying to write a program to control the CIP. It sounds like the control you are working with is digital I/O and Analog. I assume none of the equipment is smart, devicenet, Profibus, etc. AB Plus freq drives (the Power Flex series are cheaper) require a start and stop command (2 digital outs) Or you can jumper the 110 control power to the start terminal and it will always be in run mode, open the stop command to stop the drive. One digital in for a limit switch to tell you if someone turned off the disconnect. If you want the drive to send back some feed back, at speed, fault, running, etc You will need 1 digital in for each; at min you would want a fault bit. To control speed remotely will require an analog out (4-20 ma, 0-10V, etc) You can send a zero speed command to stop the drive but than the drive will display a zero speed instead of stopped. I don’t know why you would want to know the speed of the pump on a cleaning system. I assume you would want to control pressure or flow rate because you are using a VFD drive. So you would need one digital analog in from a pressure transmitter or flow meter. Knowing your inputted setpoint pressure or flow and the actual pressure or flow from the transmitter you would have a PID loop control the speed of the pump (VFD). So to control the pump at this point you would need a min of 2 digital outs, 2 digital ins One analog in and one analog out. For the agitator, this is probably just a contactor. One digital out to start it. One digital in on the aux contacts to let you know the contactor actually pulled in. And again one digital in to tell you if someone turned off the disconnect. You would be amazed how many time things will not start because some threw the disconnect to work on it and forgot to turn it back on. If this is controled with a float to start and stop, than you will need another digital in. Agitator one digital out, 3 digital in. Same would go for the return pump, assuming float control so you don’t pump the tank empty. Now if you are inquiring about capturing the data from the process, temperature, pressure, flows, ph, ect. That is another ball of wax. Omega has a ton of stuff while would require at least one analog in for each device. We use Allen-Brady PLC’s everything from micro logic to C-logic. For data capture, we use Rs-View to change settings (control varibles) and create the data logs for alarms and keystrokes. Cature data with RSSQL. The CIP unit you mentioned looks kinda like a PLC controlled Pressure washer, I assume you want to record pressure, temp and cycle times. I hope this is what you were inquiring, if not, I tried. Best regards, TheLightsAreOnBut

Question: what is the most likeliest aerospace engineer field is going to have the most increase in and a better future? with technology advancing even more will we even need planes to fly us around in the future? and anyways what's the best aerospace engineering career from these four aircraft structural engineer, aerodynamics engineer, avionics engineer, or control engineer? which one do you believe would be the highest paying and highest percentage of job increasing for the future?

Answer: I work as an aviation engineer for the military. And there are tons of fields inside aircraft design you didn't mention such as: propulsion systems, fuel systems, test flight, safety, power systems. Anyway your on the right path looking into any of these careers. Let me break it down to you in the government and private sector structures and aerodynamics are all part of the same branch or division. Either would make a good field to work in, but aerodynamics could lead to another career in test flight depending on what you would like in the future. It doesn't really matter where you start cause you ca always learn more and move around. I started in power systems and ended up moving into avionics. Avionics is great there are always places to move around. As long as you understand avionics could mean any black box on the aircraft radar, navigation, guidance systems, displays and communications. A big part of working in avionics is passing the background check to work in the field, since the majority of the equipment is classified. Control engineering is kind of boring. I have somebody I work with that use to do that. The boring part of the job is when in helicopter design they just spin the blades non-stop to do test on them. And that's a big part of being a control engineer.

Question: What is process control engineering and what is the job of process control engineer?

Answer: Process control engineering is exactly what it sounds like. Coming up with a way to control a process. For example turning oil into gasoline. There are different ways to do this and if you can come up with a more efficient process then you will be more profitable. This would most likely fall under the umbrella of Chemical Engineering. If you are looking at just the controls aspect it may fall under electrical engineering as well.

Question: Is there a differentiation among an Instrument & Control Engineer, Instrument Engineer and a Control Engineer? If there is, can you kindly differentiate or elaborate their Basic Functions and Line of work. Thanks.

Answer: A control engineer would deal with the designs and analyses of control systems, not necessarily for factorys, only, but for all kinds of control systems. These would include launch vehicles, gimbals, automotive, other transportation systems, avionics, and many more. An I&E engineer deals mostly with industrial plant design, construction, and operation. In a factory, PLC (programmable logic controllers) are widely used, so the I&E man must know 'relay logic'. He must also know all about various instruments for sensing the processes of the factory (switches, pressure, temperature, flow, speed, humidity). He must also know about how to control valves, motors, and actuators. .

Question: How does engineering controls and management accountability affect safety issues?

Answer: Management is responsible for the proper evaluation and implementation of engineering controls for all work performed or produced.

Question: what could be the possible questions that could be asked in an interview for a control engineer ? what could be the possible questions that could be asked in an interview for a control engineer ? If possibly write the brief answers thanks Questions about control engineering

Answer: Don't expect that all interviews will include extensive questioning about control theory - many companies expect that you will know that already. You may be asked how you might approach some real-world problem, what kind of control approach you might implement and why. Know when to use different control schemes, their advantages and shortcomings. Be conversant about stability criteria. Most of all, they will probably be more interested in other things, rather than just your grasp of the theory. Be confident, but humble, present yourself well and be interested in the company's goals & mission. Good luck.

Question: What softwares are must for electrical engineer besides AutoCad? I am an electrical engineer. I want to know about the softwares related to electrical engineering viz, ETAP,EPLAN,SKM Power Tools, Auto Cad, etc and their utilities and purpose. I am working as Design Engineer in Control Panel Section.How can I update myself , what should I opt for so that I get a better job and satisfaction?

Answer: AutoCad LT & Rhinoceros