Safety

• Personal Protective Equipment, The Last Line of Defense

  Personal Protective Equipment, The Last Line of Defense – Education is key to employee safety At Matrix Technologies, safety is at the top of our core values because we know our employees are our most valuable resource. We owe it to them and their families to ensure they return home each and every day injury […]

  Read MoreBrian Thomas, COSS / Industrial Automation Engineering / Manufacturing Operations Management / Manufacturing Plant Safety / Manufacturing Process Control / Management / Safety /

• An Introduction to Relief Valves

  An Introduction to Relief Valves In this article, we will provide a brief overview of some of the history related to relief valves and how we document them. Because this is an introductory article, there are some simplifications of concepts and language. For ease of reading, we are describing many different types of relief valves, […]

  Read MoreScott Saneholtz, PE / Oil and Gas Engineering / Process Engineering / Relief Documentation / Relief Valve / Relief Valve Design / Safety Valve / Safety /

• Protecting switch contacts when energizing DC contactors

  Protecting switch contacts when energizing DC contactors Companies often call on Matrix to help solve problems that arise during new installations, normal operations, and/or upgrades. This small case study examines how Matrix engineers helped an energy company investigate the cause of catastrophic damage to switch contacts encountered during an upgrade of their coke and by-products […]

  Read MoreBrian Haury, PE / Control System Upgrade / Interposing Relay Damage / Multidiscipline Engineering / Improvement / Safety / Electrical /

• How to Calculate the Short Circuit Current Rating of a Control Panel

  How to Calculate the Short Circuit Current Rating of a Control Panel Failing to calculate the short circuit current rating (SCCR) of a control panel could lead to catastrophe involving damage and injury if the control panel is connected to an electrical system with an available fault current higher than the SCCR of the panel. […]

  Read MoreBrian Haury, PE / Electrical Engineering / Manufacturing Process Improvement / National Electrical Code / Process Design Services / Safety / Electrical /

• Using a Virtual Main to Mitigate Your Arc Flash Hazard

  Using a Virtual Main to Mitigate Your Arc Flash Hazard What Is an Arc Flash? In electrical power systems, unwanted electrical discharge between conductors results in what is called an “arc flash”—the rapid release of energy in the air. These arc flashes release heat that is 35,000°F, creating a major risk of injury for those […]

  Read MoreEric Allar, PE / Arc Flash Hazard / Arc Flash Mitigation / Electrical Engineering / Instrumentation Engineering / Power Engineering / Power System / Virtual Main / Safety / Protective Relaying /

• Key Concepts of Machine Safety Verification and Validation

  Safety First  At Matrix Technologies, safety is one of our core values. In fact, we have a program called “Believe in Zero,” which means we strive every day to not have a reportable OSHA incident. We provide all necessary protections for our employees, and we put their safety first. Our concern about safety extends to […]

  Read MoreCarl Bohman, PE / Estop / General Duty Clause / Machine safety / OSHA / Risk Assessment / Safety / System Fault / Validation / Verification / Safety / SISTEMA /

• How Machine Vision Systems Can Improve Product Quality and Reduce Costs

  How Machine Vision Systems Can Improve Product Quality and Reduce Costs In manufacturing, microscopic particulates—often as small as 1/100th of an inch—can contaminate products during the manufacturing process. If left undetected, the manufacturer runs the risk of allowing low-quality products to end up in the hands of their customers. In these circumstances, it is wise […]

  Read MoreLes Haman / Inspection Process / Microscopic Inspection / Wonderware System Integrator / Quality / Safety / Allen Bradley / Wonderware /

• Simple Steps to Make Your Facility More Sustainable

  Simple Steps to Make Your Facility More Sustainable The word “sustainability” means different things to different people. In business, making a profit is vital to keeping a company sustainable and open for business. From an environmental viewpoint, sustainability means protecting the earth by reducing the use of natural resources and waste. These two perspectives come […]

  Read MoreDoug Medley, PE / ASHRAE / Energy Audit / Energy Efficiency / Energy Savings / Power Factor Correction / Variable Speed / Safety / Sustainability / Upgrade /

• Flexibility Key to Speeding the Build of a Duplicate Chemical Plant

  Flexibility Key to Speeding the Build of a Duplicate Chemical Plant Many manufacturing facilities have to consider the impact of a natural disaster on their operations—whether tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, or wildfires. And sometimes customers raise concerns about whether their supply source can deliver regardless of what Mother Nature is up to. In 2012, a […]

  Read MoreScott Saneholtz, PE / Chemical Plant / Detailed Engineering / Drawing Packages / Multidiscipline Engineering / Process Control System / Safety / ControlLogix /

• Understanding and Preventing Fault Masking

  Understanding and Preventing Fault Masking It’s critical that industrial machinery stops safely when a system fault occurs.  However, older safety systems and complex systems with multiple safety switches may be prone to fault masking. Fault masking is a dangerous condition in safety circuits.  It results from daisy chaining multiple safety devices in a safety circuit, […]

  Read MoreCarl Bohman, PE / Daisy Chain / Fault Masking / Industrial Automation Engineering / OSSD / Safety Limit Switch / Safety Relay / Safety Switch / System Fault / Safety / Improvement / Upgrades /