1.
The environment.
Governments and regulating authorities around the world
are at long last concerned about the environment. As you
can see from the definition above, the word environment
relates to people, animals, plants, their conditions and
surroundings. Many companies especially those whose operations
have a profound effect on the environment are working to,
or are implementing environmental management systems to
BS ISO 14001 : 1996. The general public and the environmental
lobby often view engineering and engineers to be the cause
of many of the world's environmental problems. It is true
that many everyday things that we take for granted for example,
the motor car, refrigerators, cookers, washing machines,
televisions, computers, things which have become part of
our every day life were designed by engineers, and are manufactured
by engineering companies. All these items have an environmental
impact, however how many of us would be prepared to give
up some of these items. Engineering is also involved in
systems to protect the environment, one extremely important
role that engineering has in caring for the environment
is the control of fluids and fluid levels. The control of
fluid levels is essential in protecting the environment
from the over fill of simple tanks containing household
fuel oils to the most complex process control tanks & storage
vessels in industry.
2.
High level alarms and the petro-chemical industry.
Due to its high public profile the petro-chemical industry
is very aware of its duty to have all the necessary environmental
protection equipment & procedures in place. TAV Engineering
supply high and high high level control instruments, which
are fitted in the top of fuel storage tanks, and are often
fitted with manual check systems. This allows the user to
check that should the tanks start to overfill, the pumps
filling the tanks are automatically shut down, and the alarm
systems operated. If fuel spills from a storage tank and
contaminates the land and ground water systems, then the
environmental impact could be enormous risking the lives
of people and animals. The clear up operations are expensive,
and extremely difficult to carry out effectively.
3.
Marine vessels using 'high' level alarms (world regulations
US coastguard).
Marine tankers carrying fuels, oils and chemicals cannot
enter American waters under the auspices of the US Coastguard
unless the tanker is fitted with High level checkable level
sensing systems. TAV Engineering are world leaders in
the manufacture of High-level manual check level switches.
4.
Level alarms and pump control within the marine environment.
Level switches operating High level and low level alarms
are used extensively in the marine industry to take care
of all the various tank systems aboard a ship from the bilge's
to the heavy fuel oil storage tanks, looking after the ships
personnel & the ships tank outlets. Preventing spillage
into the sea.
5.
Interfacing liquid detection.
Any area where oils and fuels exist will always be subject
to spills and contamination. In a very small way you will
have seen an example of this if you have ever washed your
bicycle. The water often carries oil from the chain and
other areas away onto the ground, the colour haze you see
on the surface of the water is the oil film. Imagine if
this were to be allowed to happen on a large scale, rainwater
would wash the fuel or oil into the soil or ground water
system. Sites at risk to such contamination are normally
designed with rainwater 'run off' channels and storage tanks
where the water & fuels etc. are collected. These storage
tanks are called interceptors it is here that the liquids
coming in are allowed to settle, because water is heavier
than the oils and fuels the water sinks, leaving the oils
and fuels floating on top. These interceptors are normally
fitted with level control device's which sense the interface
between the water and the fuel, in this way the levels of
water and the fuel layer can be controlled. Preventing the
fuels and oils from contaminating the soil and ground water
system.
HVAC Engineering, Los Angeles
