Water pumping

[Strima]

Just been told I've got an interview for a company dealing with water pumping systems both fresh and waste. From what I can gather they mainly deal with the main water suppliers in the UK such as Anglian Water, so at a rough guess three phase pumping stations etc. Their job advert was a little vague and so is their website.

Is anybody working in this sector and do you have any pointers?

My three phase is a little rusty so I'll be brushing up on that however any information of what's involved with large scale water distribution would be great.

I have a pretty bad sense of smell so should be alright on the sewage treatment works!!! :lol:

Cheers.

 

[Guest123]

Johnboy would be your man on this, it's his bread & butter.

 

[Strima]

Cheers Lenny.

 

[Engineer54]

There is a lot more to getting into the water industry than meets the eye. Pumping stations can be quite involved affairs. Water treatment plant's (s**t farms) even more so. ...Though i wouldn't think that they would expect you to know what's going on straight off the bat so to speak!! lol!!

 

[Strima]

Would be nice to get an insight into the industry as I'd like to know what I'm getting into. Haven't got the job by a long-shot yet but this type of work interests me more than house bashing so showing I've done a bit of research on the interview should show them that I am interested in the job and not just going for anything I can get.

They're aware of my background so either they're desperate or I could actually have something to offer... :lol:

 

[Richard Burns]

I have worked in a waste water treatment plant some time ago and really there were just a lot of pumps transferring from tank to tank, a lot of level sensors and flow meters, and a lot of sampling points. I would think distribution systems would be much more complicated, as E54 says.
Seemed complicated at first but once you understood the system it was fairly clear cut.
However the thing about this plant was that the input to the plant was pre planned and not dependent on the supply from an unknown source.
Practice up on reading plant diagrams as in one interview I had they produced a layout of the plant and said, what do you make of that...
(I thought I came out very well, but did not get the job!)
The other thing is the control mechanisms for automated plant, do you know how PLC systems work and the type of control voltages used?

 

[johnboy6083]

hello mate. Im currently working on fresh water sites for south east water. If your job is with anglian water, then you may well be working for Jacobs Les, which is the same company i work for.
The work can be very varied. I do everything from new building services, to installing new level transducers to new MCC's (motor control centres). Motiors nowadays are all squirrel cage induction motors, fed from Variable speed drives. They are controlled by a PLC system and sometimes use profibus to do this. The PLC knows how to control the pumps ect by taking information from the instrumentation on site. This includes pressure switches, presssure transducers, level transducers, flow meters. Also the site feeds information to a telemetry system, and basic start and stop commands are also received from the telemetry.
You need to reserach digital and analogue control systems. Digital is basically an open or closed contact,. These are unaffected by magnetic interference, although we are told we still havwe to maintain the same seperation from power ect.
Analogue conrol is usually 4-20 mA nowadays. The instrument will give the plc a reading inbetween thye 4-20 mAscale, and this will be preset into the PLC as to what means what. Uauallyu the 4mA is the minimum reading, and 20Ma is the max, with the bits inbetween scaled.
Learn about pressure, basic mechanical control, like valves, non return valves (also called check valves by the old blokes), we also install rotork valves.
Also look onthe CMP website and learn hpw to gland E1W glands, as they are the specification (well on SEW anyway).
Learn how to strip and prepare BS 5308 ICAT cables with hellaman sleeves.
good luck, and get googling lol.

 

[johnboy6083]

oh, and the diagrams that richard mentioned above are called P&ID's (process and instrumentation diagrams).
the control voltage is usually 110V (not centre tapped) for E-stops, and 24V for the PLC.

 

[Strima]

Gents, thanks for the responses, very helpful.

The company is Xylem Water Solutions.

I have a base understanding of PLC's and also basic PLC programming ladders, not enough to confidently programme a full set but I can get by.

I have worked on large scale temporary fuel farms in the past and some hydraulics so I'm not a complete novice at working with fluid transfer etc.

I'd best get googling I'm not trying to be an expert at the interview but I think it would be very helpful to have a base understanding.

Shame their job advert wasn't very precise and they're aware of my background so all can't be lost.

Thanks and the beers are on me.

 

[Silly Sausage]

Pneumatics is a useful skill to have for Instrumentation work.

Well done on getting the interview & Good Luck! Nail it mate