|
|
|||||||||
| Software: RF Cascade Workbook | RF Symbols for Office | RF Symbols & Stencils for Visio | Espresso Workbook | ||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
   |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Please Support RF Cafe by purchasing my ridiculously low-priced products, all of which I created. RF & Electronics Symbols for Visio RF & Electronics Symbols for Office RF & Electronics Stencils for Visio T-Shirts, Mugs, Cups, Ball Caps, Mouse Pads These Are Available for Free |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ESD Between Engineers and Technicians
My
electronics career began in the USAF as a radar system maintenance specialist
and did not have exposure to engineers except a rare visit by a communications
officer during system certification tests. Following separation (aka
"getting out"), I went to work as an electronics technician for Westinghouse
at the Oceanic Division in Annapolis, Maryland. It was the first time
I worked alongside engineers. My nature is to be subservient and respectful
toward people put in charge of my activities, whether at work or otherwise,
so I was surprised to witness an
underlying rift
that persisted between engineers and technicians. A minority of the
techs seemed to harbor resentment for the engineers and took every opportunity
to highlight their mistakes, no matter how minor. Derisive comments
were usually reserved for the benefit of co-workers, not the engineers
themselves (backbiting). I admired most of the engineers enough that
it motivated me to spend many years taking classes part-time to earn
my own BSEE degree.On one occasion a production test technician discovered an incorrect voltage reference level on a comparator circuit in a very complex mixed signal circuit that was part of a towed sonar array for the U.S. Navy. He spent a good week telling everyone who would listen how dumb the engineer was and how smart he was. "Those d**n engineers have all that schooling and can't even design a simple comparator circuit, and they get paid many times what I make," to paraphrase from distant memory. The engineer was actually one of the company's top designers with many highly successful projects to his credit, and a nice guy as well. The technician was know to make his own share of mistakes, including applying incorrect voltage to circuits under test and unnecessarily failing an entire batch of boards because of it.
On the other hand, another engineer I worked with there was truly a legend in his own mind. He was a Ph.D type who was never wrong, even when he was. The guy designed the transducer elements for sonar arrays. When the metal plating on a new type ceramic element detatched during a soldering process, he spent days blaming the incompetent technicians who had all (including me) been trained and qualified in NASA-quality soldering techniques. As you might guess, the problem turned out being a faulty lamination procedure he devised. The guy left our clean room assembly area in a rage and never returned, even after a redesign corrected the problem.
What brings these situations to mind, you might ask? Well, being an avid reader of the Sherlock Ohms series published by Design News, I sometimes detect a hint of the same type of tension between engineers and technicians. A couple days ago a story titled, "Capacitor Problem? Replace the Contactor" was posted and then today another titled, "Sneak Path Snafus Circuit Board," appeared. The two scenarios exactly illustrate the rift I have witnessed throughout my electronics career.
Posted September 13, 2013
Copyright: 1996 - 2026 |
About RF Cafe RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling 2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps while tying up your telephone line, and a lady's voice announced "You've Got Mail" when a new message arrived... |
Copyright 1996 - 2026 All trademarks, copyrights, patents, and other rights of ownership to images
and text used on the RF Cafe website are hereby acknowledge My Hobby Website: My Daughter's Website: |
