Bill Watkins & John Taylor, C-E NATCO
For decades the oil industry has attempted automation projects with mixed success. The mechanical nature of most electrical components and the short shelf life of first generation electronic components brought many early automation attempts to partial or total frustration. And then came the integrated circuit (IC). This microminiaturization allowed us to travel to the moon and back, to replace slide rules with light powered business-card-size calculators, to enjoy coffee brewed for us in the moments just before we awake and so on. This same technology is now at work in our watches, cars, televisions, typewriters, radios, homes and offices...touching us through nearly every aspect of work and play with reliability second to nothing that precedes it. Seeing this technology as filling a much needed gap C-E Natco has selected from the highest end of the quality spectrum a programmable logic controller (microprocessor) and coupled it with the thousands of man years of design fabrication, operation and troubleshooting experience to create hardware/software packages capable of performing the demanding tasks of a demanding industry. These systems operated LACT units, vapor recovery systems, filter plants, burner firing and shutdown systems, steam generators and a host of others...with the emphasis on reliability.