EC:D/3 Loop Optimizer Powered by Control Station

Process Control - analysis, optimization, tuning: Control Station, Inc. D/3 Loop Optimizer Powered by Control Station. Highly intuitive PID controller tuning software that integrates seamlessly with the D/3 DCS from NovaTech Process Solutions, providing effective and efficient modeling of even oscillatory and transitional process data as well as improving process control and plant profitability. This is a Control Engineering 2011 Engineers' Choice (EC) nominee.

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D/3 Loop Optimizer powered by Control Station represents a breakthrough in process control optimization technology specifically for users of the D/3 Distributed Control System (DCS) from NovaTech Process Solutions. D/3 Loop Optimizer integrates seamlessly with the D/3 DCS and can be launched directly from the end-user's HMI. D/3 Loop Optimizer simplifies the tuning of regulatory PID controllers through the use of intuitive graphics, process simulations, and relevant descriptive statistics. D/3 Loop Optimizer's integration with NovaTech's DCS provides rapid access to real-time process data and it further simplifies the optimization for PID controllers. The software can accurately model and tune controllers operated in either open- or closed-loop mode. 

Achieving and maintaining steady-state operation is challenging in production environments. Process plants are inherently dynamic due to multivariable interactions and innumerable disturbances. Ensuring that all elements of a process are quiet and stable prior to bump testing is often impractical and sometimes impossible. The challenge heightens when tuning controllers on integrating processes where the difficulties with achieving steady-state operation are well known. D/3 Loop Optimizer is equipped with Control Station's patent-pending NSS Modeling Innovation.  This innovation applies a unique method for modeling dynamic process data and eliminates the need for steady-state operation. The innovation does not use a specific data point or average data point as a known and is therefore not constrained by it. Rather, the innovation centers the model across the entire range of data under consideration.

As a result, D/3 Loop Optimizer is free to consider all possible model adjustments and enables an optimal model fit for controller tuning. As a requisite of traditional state-of-the-art tools, achieving steady-state operation prior to testing can significantly and negatively impact a production facility's profitability. Eliminating the need for a process to become steady before tuning indeed provides significant economic value.

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Control Station Inc.

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