Issue Archive

Contact-type level instrumentation rebounds
Because not all of the non-contact sensors listed here are actually new—some are enhancements to existing products—this year’s Product Roundup may indicate a return to relative normalcy in the level industry.

Which PLC/HMI platform should I choose?
Read what The Experts had to say to a reader's question regarding which PLC and HMI platform to choose for their particular process plant automation and controls applications.

Fieldbus technology's next biggest hurdle
If you’re a skid or modular assembly manufacturer and want to differentiate yourself from the crowd, offering digital communications and fieldbus technology could be the ticket.

Unscrambling safety regulations
The May cover story of CONTROL magazine takes a look at how some end users and vendors struggle to understand new safety regulations and how they are dealing with safety standard issues.

Process automation at Dow: Part 2
The second part of this three-part series describes Dow Chemical Co.’s transition from a successful, homegrown company to a commercially developed, highly integrated process automation solution provider.

PC-based control infiltrates process plants
As PC-based control becomes more widespread in process plants, often via purchased machines and process skids, companies are finding it's a short step to implementing it for control over critical processes.

Full throttle batch and startup response
Improvements in practices for starting up a loop with a large process time constant, or slow ramp time compared to the dead time, can save 25% or more in batch cycle and startup time. Read how.

Invensys ups enterprise integration ante
It's too early to tell the Visicalcs of today from the Microsoft Offices of tomorrow, but, for now, Invensys Process Systems appears headed in a positive direction.

Machines staying healthy by staying smart
Machine health monitoring is going beyond mainstream vibration and oil analysis to embrace increasingly high-resolution sensing and prioritized data processing technologies.

Nuclear power makes sense
Whether you believe in global warming, the Kyoto Protocol or hugging trees, building nuclear power plants will create thousands of jobs for control engineers, operators and technicians.

Immigrants are us
We are all immigrants here, and if you look at the contributions made by immigrants to arts, letters, science and engineering in the U.S. over the past 400 years, the amount of innovation is staggering.

The power of external-reset feedback
Preventing windup requires reconfiguration of the controller, according to process control consultant, F. Greg Shinskey, and external-reset feedback is the most satisfactory method of accomplishing it.

Why do we have global warming?
CONTROL columnist Béla Lipták, PE, finishes his Lessons Learned series on global warming, and what the process control confraternity can do about understanding and perhaps controlling it.

Honeywell Users' Group Americas Symposium
The 2006 Honeywell Users' Group Americas Symposium themed, "Adapting to Change," will be held June 11-15 at the J.W. Marriott Desert Ridge Resort and Spa in Phoenix, AZ.