Articles

Upgrading pneumatic control loops


Post Date: 07/22/2005
Author:

Getting Loopy with Control Loops

This month's edition of Ask The Experts focuses in on manual control loops and offers guidance on which PID control mode should be used when, and what the range of tuning settings should be.
Post Date: 07/20/2005
Author:

More tech, more tech, more better tech!

This "special to the web" edition of Tales From the Front offers concrete suggestions on how the industry can help create true economic profit, while at the same time increase its knowledge base.
Post Date: 06/14/2005
Author:

Three decades of DCS technology

Distributed control system technology and its pioneers have had a profound effect on our profession and should be recognized, according to <EM>Around the Loop </EM>columnist Terrence K. McMahon.
Post Date: 04/18/2005
Author:

What's in your server?

Security threats to control system networks are a fact of life. Senior Technical Editor Rich Merritt shares tips and techniques he culled from end users and vendors on how you can keep the Barbarians at bay.
Post Date: 02/26/2005
Author:

Dynamic simulation aids recycling plant redesign

A poor design and high consumption costs shut this Pennsylvania paper recycling plant down, but an in-house implementation of full, dynamic process simulation got it all tuned up for a successful restart.
Post Date: 12/09/2004
Author:

Selecting an automation network

With many projects requiring more than one network application, finding the network that best fits your needs is no easy task. This perspective will help get you started on the right path.
Post Date: 10/28/2004
Author: Dick Caro

Call it what you will, it's still artificial intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is proving it's worth in process and in practice in plants nationwide. Meanwhile the costs, in time and money, of adding AI capability to a plant keep falling.
Post Date: 10/27/2004
Author: Dana Blankenhorn

UOP gains ROI with IT integration

At UOP LLC, distibuted control, IT integration and an integrated database management system are all top priorities that translate into increased productivity, efficiency and quality.
Post Date: 10/26/2004
Author: Mike Jackson and Joseph Schaaf

PLCs becoming PACs as MRC invents new TLA

Senior Technical Editor Rich Merritt points out that market research companies have given up predicting the demise of programmable logic controllers in this <EM>Product Roundup </EM>from CONTROL.
Post Date: 10/26/2004
Author:

RFID: Coming to a plant near you

Is RFID in your process automation future? If you handle multiple-ingredient batches, adhere to record keeping practices, and need a better handle on quality control, then it's not just for Wal-Mart anymore!
Post Date: 10/25/2004
Author: Wayne Labs

Technically speaking: Will standards mesh?

Reliability, scalability and mobility are the trump cards of wireless mesh networks and should result in triumph over other wireless topologies, according to Senior Technical Editor Dan Hebert, PE.
Post Date: 10/24/2004
Author:

Back from the grave

By the 1990s concurrent engineering was all but dead as a lack of interest from users sent it to an early grave. But now it's been resurrected, and this time we may actually need it.
Post Date: 10/22/2004
Author: Rich Merritt, Senior Technical Editor

Distributed intelligence

Sometime in the next year or so, companies are going to release control products that will dramatically change the landscape of the automation and process control industry in ways never dreamed possible.
Post Date: 10/21/2004
Author: Rich Merritt, Senior Technical Editor

Upsetting experiences

<EM>Control Talk </EM>columnists Greg McMillan and Stan Weiner explain why the differential pressure measurement was straight and proffer a new Puzzler: Why did the drum-level control cause more trips?
Post Date: 10/21/2004
Author:

A Hot Idea in a Very Cold Place

Quick-Connects Make Life Easier at the "End of the World"
Post Date: 08/08/2004
Author:

A Model Way to Control Fermentation

The Tight Control of Dissolved Oxygen is Key to the Process, But it Must be Flexible
Post Date: 08/08/2004
Author:

Backup? What Backup?

Tales From the Front: Programmers Say and Do the Darndest Things
Post Date: 08/08/2004
Author:

How secure is your plant?

Is your plant control system safe from cyberwar attack? CONTROL Editor in Chief Walt Boyes polls readers on whether their plant control security system is good enough and what they plan to do about it.
Post Date: 07/10/2004
Author: Walt Boyes, Editor in Chief

Advanced Control Smorgasbord

Processors Now Have A Lot of Tasty Choices When It Comes to Advanced Control Technologies
Post Date: 05/11/2004
Author: the time many of us were being assigned to our first electronic control room ...