Industrial Instrument Mechanics install, repair, maintain and adjust instruments used to measure and control industrial processes such as pulp and paper manufacturing and petrochemical production. Industrial Instrument Mechanic is a nationally designated trade under the Inter-provincial Red Seal program.(Find out about Red Seal in the Trades Lingo section.)

What do these workers do?
(Source: BC Work Futures)

As an industrial instrument technician and mechanic, your job will include inspecting, testing, maintaining, calibrating, adjusting, repairing and installing electronic, mechanical and pneumatic measuring and controlling instrumentation and systems on industrial machines and systems. This sounds straightforward but modern manufacturing and production relies on complex mechanical and electronic sensing instrumentation that requires a lot of skill and experience to adjust and calibrate. Doing this well means you will:

Read manuals, circuit diagrams and blueprints. As an industrial instrument technician you'll consult manuals, circuit diagrams and blueprints to find out normal levels of operation and to follow maintenance and diagnostic routines to measure and control flow, level, pressure, temperature, chemical composition and other specifications used in manufacturing and processing.

Install, adjust and repair components. Working in the field as an industrial instrument technician, you will repair intricate and complicated components, such as sensors, transmitters, pressure gauges, temperature indicators, controllers, radiation counters or detectors and flowmeters, as well as remove and replace defective parts and install measurement and control instruments on new and existing industrial equipment.

Test, diagnose and maintain industrial instruments. If there are problems or malfunctions with the instruments, it's your job to diagnose and fix them. You'll use pneumatic, electrical and electronic testing devices and precision measuring instruments such as pressure gauges, mercury manometers, potentiometers, pulse and signal generators, oscilloscopes, transistor curve tracers, ammeters, voltmeters, and wattmeters to systematically perform the right testing procedures. You'll locate defective parts in analog and digital systems by tracing out and testing electronic solid state and vacuum tube circuitry and components.

Communicate with machine operators. You'll need to be able to communicate changes and adjustments to instrumentation as well as your recommendations for avoiding future problems or gaining a higher level of accuracy from the machine. You'll do this through schematic drawings and sketches, and through written and verbal reports.

Precisely assemble circuit boards and controls. Instrument mechanics, even when not directly involved in manufacturing, assemble circuit boards and controls as part of the maintenance and upgrading process. Handbuilt circuit boards must produce accurate measurements, and must sometimes be fabricated in the field under less than ideal conditions.

Read the full Industrial Instrument Mechanic Profile (44Kb pdf).

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