Top Control Engineering articles, October 2011

Most-visited articles at www.controleng.com during October 2011 included how control engineers may not be following NFPA rules, Coriolis flowmeter market, getting parts for aging control systems, a control tutorial, PLC design trends, and surviving control system failure, among other articles.

By Mark T. Hoske November 14, 2011

Most-visited articles at www.controleng.com during October 2011 included how control engineers may not be following NFPA rules, Coriolis flowmeter market, getting parts for aging control systems, a control tutorial, PLC design trends, and surviving control system failure. Descriptions and links to those most-visited articles follow.

October 2011 most popular Control Engineering online articles

Codes and regulations: Electrical Controls’ Dirty Little Secret: We Don’t Follow NFPA Rules – Take the survey! Of course safety is important, but most don’t follow NFPA 70e safety rules for working on an energized electrical panel. Risky? Yes. Unsafe? No, according to this system integrator. Perhaps industrial control panels need their own arc flash standard. (Do you follow the rules when working on control panels? Link to anonymous survey. See related articles.)

Leaders Under 40, Control Engineering class of 2011 – This generation of manufacturing automation and controls leaders includes 19 young professionals excelling in control system design and teaching others about the fun in engineering, while resolving local and global challenges through smarter applications of automation and control technologies.

IO Module Replacement: What You Need to Know – When upgrading processors, do I/O modules also need replacing? Many processor brands will communicate with legacy I/O systems and provide most or all functionality of modern control platforms. This may not be the case if changing processor brands, according to this system integrator.

Coriolis flowmeters continue to gain market share – About to displace magnetic flowmeters, Coriolis designs are poised to move into the number-two spot. Continuing growth says number-one is inevitable.

When your parts supply for an old system runs out – Providing geriatric care for an aging control system or piece of critical equipment can require you to be creative when your parts supply dries up. There are alternatives.

Disturbance-Rejection vs. Setpoint-Tracking Controllers – Designing a feedback control loop starts with understanding its objective as well as the process’s behavior.

Design trends in PLC-based control systems – Advances in electronics manufacturing are supporting higher functionality levels in industrial automation hardware.

Control system failure survival strategies – When bad things happen to good control systems, it’s best to know in advance which of several strategies will be used, why, and how.

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– Compiled by Mark T. Hoske, CFE Media, Control Engineering, www.controleng.com.


Author Bio: Mark Hoske has been Control Engineering editor/content manager since 1994 and in a leadership role since 1999, covering all major areas: control systems, networking and information systems, control equipment and energy, and system integration, everything that comprises or facilitates the control loop. He has been writing about technology since 1987, writing professionally since 1982, and has a Bachelor of Science in Journalism degree from UW-Madison.