Welcome to the fifth comic in the Boil's Laws comic strip series, brought to ChEnected by artist and chemical engineer-Rich Byrnes. It's entitled "The Sample Carrier." You can see a larger version or by clicking on the comic below. See the first in the series here or read about the inspiration behind Boils Laws here.
Have you ever done something to "look busy" for the boss?
Comments
The idea for the sample carrier came to me as I reflected upon my long walks from the process buildings to the central labs years ago. We used the sampler carriers to shuttle process samples to the lab. A colleague of mine commented that we always "looked busy" whenever we were towing the sample carrier with us even if they were empty.
Also, a process operator once noted, he knew I carried a clipboard with me at all times so it would appear to others that I was always conducting official business. Of course I denied this claim and offered the simple explanation of how else would I carry the large number of notes required to document all the “stuff” they would tell me.
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P&IDs are always great for looking busy. Open a set and stare at the page for a while. Turn occasionally to confirm that you are awake. Or so I hear.
When we arrive at a site for troubleshooting I always hope to see operators carry sample carriers. It sure helps when studying a process, but more often that not they are empty.
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I love your P&ID comment, I often have to stare at the page for a while just to figure out all the "stuff" on the drawing, the trick is not to fall asleep before you get the process figured out. I keep stacks of P&IDs on my table, I confess that it does make me "look busy", and folks are impressed, however the story I'm sticking with is paper copies are handy for mark-ups, and I have no other place to store them for easy access.
Regarding sampling you are so correct, sampling and analytical data is essential for true understanding of any process, all too often in my career I have had to say "too bad we don't have enough historical analytical data" when faced with troubleshooting current issues.
Thanks for sharing your experiences... Rich
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