THE TRIUMF CONTROL ROOM - A Better Work Environment
Presented at the W.A.O. Conference in Vancouver Canada , May 22 1998 --- by : Gordon A. Roy --- TRIUMF Operations
The TRIUMF Main Control Room is not only where the 500 MeV cyclotron and proton beamlines are controlled from, it is the home of the Operators. From this 780 square foot room filled with over 40 CRT's, 24 racks, dozens of knobs, lever wheels, switches, pushbuttons, cables, jacks, meters etc. Operators control over 2,000 devices and monitor over 5,000 parameters. To do so successfully the layout has to conform to requirements. As such, the 160 square feet between the main and auxiliary console is highly organized territory with areas set aside for communications, safety, cyclotron control, beamline control, paperwork and other uses as they arise.
The plan view of the consoles resembles a hexagon with two opposing corners open. This allows others to transit the console area instead of being trapped in a dead end arrangement. The racks of the main section are full height, 72 inch, units or higher where additional ones have been stacked horizontally in order to provide more space for CRT's. The auxiliary console currently comprises eight 56" high racks with room for two more. These lower height units provide an illusion of more space as one can see over the tops. In both cases the racks are a mixture of 19 and 24 inch wide units in order to accommodate workstations, P.C.'s and other equipment. In one notable case the centre rails of two 24 inch units were removed in order to house three workstations.
A quiet work environment is hard to achieve in a room with over 30 cooling fans which are necessary in addition to the direct cooling supplied to the racks. Sonex foams applied to wall surfaces, one inch acoustic foam applied to rack sides and doors and one inch thick fibreglass ceiling tiles help reduce the noise. When it can be employed during sessions of smooth operation, the stereo system and television drown out most of the residual drone and eliminates the fatiguing pink noise background.
The staff at TRIUMF generally work a 37.5 hour week. The rest of the time (75%) Operations is responsible for the entire ten acre site. The Shift Supervisor is in charge and has full support of management in regard to any decision he makes, is deemed to be correct. After the dust settles, it may be (and only rarely has been) pointed out that maybe he could have made a better or different decision. Of course Operations are free to call on any of the experts for assistance whenever required, however the "3am", sunny Saturday afternoon or any long weekend calls are often futile.
The various systems Operators control comprise :
and anything else required to operate and tune the cyclotron and proton beamlines.
There are also such duties as :
as well as :
and as always, fixing anything that breaks !
Operators have been known to fix everything from plugged toilets to computers and are willing to use whatever it takes, be that chewing gum, paper clips and a hammer, or in some cases even the "large" hammer to accomplish the task.. Often heard is " Just because we don't know anything about it, won't stop us from fixing it ".
All of the above is done by, in theory, three Operators per shift. In reality there are usually only two, in particular during the summer. The operators work hours are: Day shift = 07:00 - 14:45 , Evening shift = 14:45 - 23:00 , Night Shift = 23:00 - 07:00. These hours were chosen in order to facilitate travel in an attempt to avoid traffic jams. The shift schedule is simple : Day , Evening , Off , Night , Off , alternating on a three and four day rotation. This forward rotation schedule repeats every 35 days (see sample below). This system was devised by myself and a couple of others in the mid seventies and had to be approved by Health and Welfare Canada, Workers Compensation Board, Labour Relations Board and our Director. The first three were concerned under the Employment Standards Act because of the requirement to work seven days in a row, per week. Problem was solved when I found out that they count their week from Saturday midnight. Thus we only work a maximum of five days per week. The Director was concerned with individuals working only twenty-one out of thirty-five days. Problem was solved when it was pointed out that we must work a full eight hours (plus shift overlap) per day for round-the-clock coverage. With this shift system the Operators enjoy the 24 hr break when switching between day and afternoon shifts and also the ability to take three night shifts off and get an eleven day break.
Many years later when the Applied Technology Group (who operate two small cyclotrons) was formed it was recognized that this was a superior shift system and they
adopted it outright.
We have neither found nor heard of a shift system that works better !
Just about everything imaginable is put into the Log Book. Our Log Book is hand written and is a legal document. No matter what is entered, or how well or poorly it is made, there it is for all to see. There is an art to creative writing and an E-log misses the personal touch, which while not necessary for data, enters into the thought process for other decisions. There is no immediacy to an E-log. It also is nearly impossible to "sketch" or paste pictures into an electronic log. The solution may be for both to exist, however if only one is available, then handwritten would be my choice. Entries are often made without regard to their length. One minute, one hour or one day events may be entered equally. For example "power outage" says a lot. We attempt to report cyclotron performance to a resolution of three minutes, which results in some of the most creative bookkeeping imaginable, but it all tends to average out over the long haul.
The overall goal of Operators is to write as a shift summary N.D.T. that is " No Down Time ". We do take great pleasure in this, in particular around Stanley Cup Playoff time.
Something you all can probably relate to is the " Maintenance Day - gone bad ". In our case, with only two persons on shift (a common occurrence), it occasionally goes like this...
Talking with some of you this week , it seems that no matter how few the resources we are given, how little the training provided or whatever goes wrong, we all manage to get the job done with a high degree of success.
-- THANK YOU --