Plant Communications, Industrial Drawings, and Sketching

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering plant communications, two-way radio procedures, legal operating documentation, maintenance management systems, standard operating procedures, technical industrial drawings, PFDs, P&IDs, and energy plant sketching standards.

Base Station

A high-powered transceiver normally located in the control room that serves as the central hub for plant two-way radio communications.

Five by Five

A standard two-way radio response given during a radio check indicating that the transmission signal is strong and clear.

Roger That

A two-way radio transmission term confirming that a message has been received and understood (synonymous with 'Ten Four').

Out

A radio procedure term indicating that the entire conversation is finished and no reply is expected.

Over

A radio procedure term signaling that the current transmission is finished and a response from the receiving party is expected.

Standby

A two-way radio term indicating that the incoming transmission has been acknowledged and the sender is temporarily placed on hold.

Emergency, Emergency, Emergency

A phrase repeated three times to immediately interrupt all non-emergency radio traffic; alternatively communicated using the phrase 'Break, Break, Break'.

Logbook

A formal, legally binding record required by provincial boiler and pressure vessel regulations to log all operational matters, equipment tests, and shift activities, which can be used as evidence in a court of law or Coroner's inquest.

Operating Logsheets

Formal reading sheets used to record shift parameters such as critical temperatures, pressures, fuel flows, feedwater rates, and run hours for detecting trends and maintaining regulatory compliance.

Routine Maintenance

Regularly scheduled day-to-day, weekly, or monthly plant operational tasks, such as turning gear operation on turbines, fire pump tests, and running standby pumps.

Preventative Maintenance (PM)

A planned, scheduled program of inspecting, adjusting, lubricating, and replacing parts to identify developing equipment defects and prevent catastrophic breakdown or 'run to failure' operations.

Emergency Maintenance

Unplanned and unscheduled maintenance required to repair sudden, unexpected equipment failures; commonly known as 'crash' maintenance.

Work Request

An initial document created by operations or maintenance personnel outlining needed maintenance, preliminary troubleshooting, priority level, isolation requirements, and P&ID reference coordinates.

Work Order Requisition

A formal directive created after a work request is approved that authorizes maintenance trades or outside contractors to perform scheduled repairs.

Equipment Record Card

A record cataloging the mechanical and electrical specifications of a specific plant asset, including catalog number, model, operating speed, power in $\text{KW}$, voltage, amperage, and purchase cost.

Equipment Repair Record

A historical document (also called the equipment history) that tracks all past repair descriptions, installed replacement parts, labour hours, and material costs for an asset.

Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)

A documented, standardized, and carefully controlled set of instructions detailing step-by-step procedures for operating plant equipment safely, consistently, and within environmental limits.

Electronic Master P&ID

The primary digital Piping and Instrumentation Diagram kept in a secured plant database, accessible only by the drawing owner or their delegate, and updated only through formal approval.

Title Block

The standard section located in the bottom right corner of an engineering drawing that contains drawing identification, title, facility owner, scale, drafting standard, and related drawing references.

Grid System

A border coordinate system using alphanumeric divisions along drawing margins to locate specific equipment, connections, or revisions on large, complex diagrams.

Revision Block

A designated table on a technical drawing that documents all modifications, revision dates, descriptions, approval initials, and the current revision number (beginning with Revision $0$ upon initial issue).

Process Flow Diagram (PFD)

A simplified, not-to-scale schematic that illustrates the overall process flow, major plant equipment items, stream directions, primary operating pressures, temperatures, and major instrumentation.

Piping & Instrumentation Diagram (P&ID)

A detailed, not-to-scale mechanical flow diagram showing all process piping, line ID numbers, pipe sizes, valves, instrumentation loops, safety relief devices, and control logic within a plant unit.

Material Balance Drawing

A process diagram paired with a PFD that applies the conservation of mass under steady-state conditions to track mass flows, compositions, pressures, and temperatures, typically expressed in moles per unit of time or mole percent.

Construction Drawing

A precision drawing made to scale that provides multi-view representations (plan, front, side elevation), exact fabrication dimensions, connection schedules, and General Notes and Design Data tables.

General Arrangement (GA) Drawing

A drawing that depicts the overall physical layout and spatial orientation between major assemblies and equipment without labeling every individual component.

Block Plan

A conceptual diagram where geometric shapes or blocks enclose entire operational processes rather than specific equipment pieces, omitting detailed process flow streams.

Electrical Single Line Schematic

A simplified electrical drawing that depicts three-phase and distribution systems as a single line, displaying power sources, breakers, transformers, switchgear, and motors.

Plot Plan (Equipment Layout Drawing)

A scaled layout drawing showing the geographical arrangement of plant units, battery limits (demarcated by outer dashed lines), piperacks, and plant North orientation.

Centre Line

A light, broken line drawn through the center of an object or feature that acts as a foundation line from which initial proportions and measurements are constructed.

Dimension Line

A thin line terminating in arrowheads used on engineering sketches and drawings to indicate the exact distance between two specific points or extension lines.

Orthographic Projection

A method of representing a three-dimensional object in two dimensions by projecting multiple perpendicular plane views, requiring a minimum of two views to describe the form.

Front View

The primary or key view selected in an orthographic projection from which all other standard views (top, side, bottom, rear) are projected.

Sectioning

The technical drawing method of depicting an object as if cut open along an internal plane to expose hidden internal parts and construction features.

Cross Hatching

Evenly spaced parallel lines, typically drawn at a $45^\circ$ angle (or $30^\circ$ and $60^\circ$ for adjacent components), used to indicate cut surface areas and identify specific construction materials.

ASME A13.1 Piping Labelling Standard

A standardized color-coding system for identifying piping contents based on hazard classes, such as Black on Yellow for Flammable, White on Brown for Combustible, and Black on Orange for Toxic and Corrosive fluids.

Single Line Drawing

A standard schematic format widely used in plant line tracing where fluid process pipelines are shown as single lines without pipe wall thickness or scale.