Process technician

Polymer Processing Technician Mr B. Brown Retires 2 years Ms. J. Jones Move to work with Mr Brown for mentoring during the next year. 

Accidental Leakage Number of high medium priority leaks as defined in SSO 307 % completion of planned process technician routines... 

New technologies, new materials, new equipment, and new chemicals will introduce new safety and health problems that will have to be detected, diagnosed, and eliminated or controlled. Process technicians working with new technologies and chemicals should be alert to hazards and quickly inform the appropriate personnel of the hazards. 

Heat is a form of energy indicated by temperature. Temperature extremes affect how well people work and how much work they can do. The human body is always producing heat and must remove excess heat in order to maintain body proper temperature. In the same way that excessive heat can affect process equipment and process safety, heat can also affect the human body and its proper functioning. During the summer, especially in geographic areas subject to hot summers, heat can become a serious safety hazard to a process technician. 

Sweating is the body s principal method for removing excess heat. Sweat consists of water and electrolytes (salts). An individual at rest and not under stress, sweats about one liter per day. The sweating rate for an individual under stress of heavy woric or high temperatures is about four liters in four hours. The body must replace water and electrolytes to prevent heat stress or sickness. This is why many people who try to walk out of stranded situations in a desert with only a few liters of water fail and die. They do not realize how profusely they will sweat and how dehydrated they will become. In the pages that follow, we will take a closer look at temperature hazards the process technician may be exposed to in the processing industry. 

This is a short chapter that briefly introduces you to the environmental, safety, and health hazards associated with the collection of samples, their transport, and ambient air sampling instrumentation (gas detectors). Process technicians and analyzer technicians will frequently be involved with collecting samples. 

Over the course of a year, some process technicians may collect hundreds or even thousands of samples. Over a 20- or 30-year career, a technician may collect tens of thousands of samples. Each sample collected, due to its chemical nature, may pose a health or physical hazard. Sample collection must always be done with care to avoid possible injury or health effects to the sample collector. 

A critical function of all process technicians is to be able to correctly operate and calibrate a portable gas detector. 

Often, during unit turnarounds or maintenance of equipment, process technicians must gas test an area for combustibles before hot work can begin. Testing for the presence of gaseous or volatile hydrocarbons is performed ... 

T/F) Over a 20-30 year career, a process technician may collect thousands of samples. 

Alarms are devices that alert the process technician to an abnormal or out of specification condition. They are usually audible (buzzer or horn) and visual (flashing light or flashing symbol or color on a computer screen). All interlocks should have an alarm to alert the process technician to a serious problem. Ideally, alarms associated with a safety interlock would be on a separate control panel. 

A safety interlock control function must be separate from the BPCS. Its function is not on-spec product but the prevention of a catastrophic event that would result in human injury or death or damage to equipment. Safety interlocks are usually hardwired to make it difficult to bypass or defeat them. This is done because there have been past occurrences of a unit engineer or a process technician jumping to the conclusion that an alarm was faulty and there was no problem. They tried to go around the interlock to shut off the alarm or prevent process interference. Safety interlocks must not be bypassed without written approval. 

Because a process technician or engineer cannot tell the difference from a process interlock tuid a safety interlock, there must be a list available to employees of the interlocks and their type. This list is usually part of the process safety information required by OSHA. Safety interlocks must be tested and the test documented. Often, this is on a yearly basis and done by an outside contractor. 

Process technician—inspects area and ensures good housekeeping, blinds, isolates and clears equipment, vessels, tanks and piping, immobilizes power driven equipment (lockout/tagout), determines PPE required, fills out the permit, and posts it at the job site. 

Process supervisor—delegates responsibilities to the process technician and ensures that all established procedures are completed. 

Safety permit inspector—inspects area and ensures that it is safe performs gas test and determines oxygen level ensures that equipment, vessels, and piping are cleared confirms required PPE signs permit and sets time limit. This function is performed by process technicians at many locations. 

If you think about it, who best knows where the shutoff valves on a unit are, what chemicals are in what lines and vessels, and where the unit s emergency equipment is located than the operators of the affected unit This is why most, if not all, process technicians are designated First Responder, Operations Level. 

Process technicians are responsible for compliance with certain DOT regulations because they will ... 

Process technicians will receive training in shipping duties when they are hired. After receiving the training, the technician is responsible for complying with the DOT provisions that apply to their tasks. 

The DOT has as its primary fimction the ensuring of transportation safety and the protection of consumer interests. Process technicians are responsible for complying with certain DOT regulations because they will make preliminary physical inspections of cargo trailers and railcars before loading chemicals in them. They will placard or verify the correct placarding of the trailer/railcar, and inspect and sign the manifest. 

Under the Clean Water Act, all discharges into the nation s waters are unlawful unless specifically authorized. Industrial and municipal dischargers must obtain permits from the EPA or their municipal government before allowing any effluent to leave their premises. The Clean Water Act and its amendments have a large impact on most process industries and involve process technicians to catch and analyze samples and operate wastewater facilities instrument technicians to maintain the instruments of the wastewater system and analyzer technicians to maintain and calibrate analyzers on the wastewater system (see Figure 20-2) and outfalls. 

I have also mentioned instrumentation and analyzer technicians in this text and included several photographs since they are out there on the units exposed to the same hazards as a process technician. This was suggested to me by colleagues at a nearby college. 

Gold collar—term used to describe process technicians. 

Housekeeping—maintenance of cleanliness and order closely associated with safety in the chemical processing industry. Process technicians are required to keep their immediate areas clean. 

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