Process points: Book, guides, trade shows, standards development target process industries

Numerous resources for the process industries were announced recently.

By Control Engineering Staff April 6, 2005

Numerous resources for the process industries were announced recently. They include a process control book, two guides directed at pharmaceutical industry operations, an international process automation trade show in China and a North American batch industries conference, and continuing work on a manufacturing operations management standard. More details on these new offerings, along with links to additional information, are provided.

Practical Process Control for Engineering and Technicians , a new book by Wolfgang Altmann from Newnes/Elsevier, is intended for engineers and technicians who need a clear, practical understanding of the essentials of process control, loop tuning, and optimizing plant or process operations. Topics covered include the fundamentals of process control, tuning PID control loops, correcting stability problems, feedforward control, statistical process control, and cascade control. Book is said to help readers identify and apply essential building blocks in automatic control, tune control loops with significant dead-times, demonstrate a clear understanding of analog process control, and more.

For more information, click here to visit the publisher’s Web site . ISBN: 0750664002

Two new guides from ISPE, the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering , are directed at proper maintenance of electronic records and signatures, and at particulate containment. GAMP Good Practice Guide: A Risk-Based Approach to Compliant Electronic Records and Signatures provides guidance on meeting current regulatory expectations for compliant electronic records and signatures. User-friendly manual covers appropriate management of electronic records and signatures. ISPE Good Practice Guide: Assessing the Particulate Containment Performance of Pharmaceutical Equipment provides standard methodology for use in testing the containment efficiency of solids handling systems used in pharmaceutical industry under closely defined conditions.

For more information, click on the titles of the guides, or visit the ISPE Web site .

Interkama Asia (formerly Interkama China) international trade fair for industrial process automation is slated for November 28– December 1 in Shanghai. Range of exhibits spans IT solutions for process management; regulatory, control, and monitoring systems; and new solutions for maintenance, engineering, and servicing. The event will be held at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre and managed by Deutsche Messe AG (Hannover) and its regulatory subsidiary, Hannover Fairs China.

For more information, click here to visit the show Web site .

World Batch Forum ’s 2005 North American Conference takes place in Atlantic City, NJ, May 15-18. The 12th annual global event will feature 18 speakers plus panel discussions on a wide range of automation topics, including ISA S88, ISA S95, and batch and continuous process case studies.

Click here for more information, including the complete conference program.

Work continues on the development of an ISA (Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society) standard on Activity Models for Manufacturing Operations Management. The standard is the third in the ISA-S95 series, which includes five parts under the umbrella title Enterprise-Control System Integration. The goal of the standards is to reduce the risk, cost, and errors associated with implementing enterprise systems and manufacturing operations systems so that they interoperate and easily integrate. Part 3 presents models and terminology for defining the activities of manufacturing operations management.

Click here for more on the ISA-S95 Series.

—Jeanine Katzel, senior editor, Control Engineering, jkatzel@reedbusiness.com


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