Top 5 Control Engineering articles, June 15-21: Salary and career survey, PLC basics, servo system performance evaluation, more

Articles about the 2015 Control Engineering salary and career survey, PLC basics for enterprise controls, evaluating servo system performance, BP Texas City 10 years later, and railroad axle manufacturing retrofits were Control Engineering’s five most clicked articles from last week, June 15-21. Miss something? You can catch up here.

By Chris Vavra June 22, 2015

Control Engineering Top 5 most read articles online, for Jun. 15-21, covered the 2015 Control Engineering salary and career survey, PLC basics for enterprise controls, evaluating servo system performance, BP Texas City 10 years later, and railroad axle manufacturing retrofits. Link to each article below.

1. Control Engineering salary and career survey, 2015

Control Engineering research: While slightly less is expected for salary and significantly more for bonuses in 2015 compared to 2014, concerns about shortages of skilled workers remained highest on the list of challenges. 

2. Support-focused enterprise controls: PLC Basics

PLC programs do not behave like scripted language programs used by most computer applications. A basic understanding of control application fundamentals is crucial for designing an effective support-focused system.

3. Evaluating servo system performance

Servo system selection criteria involves more than just wattage and price. Other important servo criteria to consider include rated torque, rated speed, overload time, torque-to-inertia ratio, resolution, frequency response, network-based solutions, physical size, quality, and reliability.

4. 10 years later: BP Texas City and the inevitable cost of an incident

This unfortunate incident from 2005 is familiar to many working in process industries and especially in the U.S., where an extensive investigation and its associated report have been used to illustrate the importance of process safety management. 

5. Railroad axle manufacturing retrofit

Remanufacturing and updating a three-stage lathe was more beneficial than purchasing a new modern machine. Everything was already in place; it just needed updated drives, and hydraulic systems.

The list was developed using CFE Media’s web analytics for stories viewed on controleng.com, June 15-21, for articles published within the last two months.

– Chris Vavra, production editor, CFE Media, cvavra@cfemedia.com.


Author Bio: Chris Vavra is web content manager for CFE Media and Technology.