A Day In The Life Of An OBW System Integration Engineer

Zoe Harrington

Background

I started college doing a Physics degree in UCC. After a year of study, I decided that the course wasn’t for me and transferred into Electrical and Electronic Engineering. From day one I loved this course, with the wide variety of topics, such as Control Engineering, Mechanics, Electromagnetics, Electrical Power, and Programming to name a few.  I did a placement in a Semiconductor manufacturing company, in the design department. The following summer I returned to the same company, working in Applications – working with embedded systems, testing wireless networks, and developing evaluation tools.

Starting With OBW

During a career break for maternity leave, I heard of an opportunity in OBW Technologies which was showing serious growth and innovation. What also attracted me was the close-knit family business which offered great flexibility, including a blend of remote working and part-time hours which appealed to me on the back of a career break.
I was initially focused on Electrical design and documentation, where I gained valuable experience on how the Project’s team operates, and a how project is carried out from the initial design to Project handover. It was also a great way to learn about the different Honeywell equipment OBW supply. Later, I became involved in GDVS or Gas Detection Visualisation Solution.

GDVS Overview

GDVS or Gas Detection Visualisation Solution, as I mentioned, is all about designing a Human Machine Interface. To put simply, it is a control centre for users to interact with their gas detection equipment. Each project is bespoke, with fully custom display screens which include floor layouts of the relevant areas. GDVS is monitoring 24/7, offering real time information and remote access. The Control System panels – TPPR (Touchpoint Pro) – are often in awkward, hard to reach places, GDVS allows them to be managed from a more easily accessible location. Typically, the GDVS HMI is based in a control or security room within a companies’ facility, or a remote display outside the area which contains gas hazards. This allows ERT to have more information about a gas event before entering the area. We have mainly been focused on pharmaceutical and some distillery sites although this can be applied to any site that has a Fixed-Gas system. See an example of our inhouse demo room through or GDVS system below.

Future

I can see both the future of OBW and my future within the company to be bright. OBW has grown considerably over the past number of years and shows no sign of slowing. There is continuous growth and innovation, we are heading in a positive direction. I would like to continue to work with various clients and large-scale projects and possibly venture abroad to work with clients over there. We are currently expanding further afield, and I am excited to be a part of that.