Control Engineering hot topics, April 2022

Control Engineering's most clicked articles in April 2022 included stories on optimal loop tuning, Engineers' Choice winners, PID, easy Industrial IoT and expanding manufacturing capabilities. Miss something? You can catch up here.

By Chris Vavra May 1, 2022
Courtesy: Emerson

Hot topics in Control Engineering, for April 2022, for stories posted in the last three months, included optimal loop tuning, Engineers’ Choice winners, PID, easy Industrial IoT and expanding manufacturing capabilities. Links to each article below.

1. The control system is key to optimal loop tuning

Leveraging the proportional-integral-derivative (PID) tuning tools embedded in automation software helps identify the ideal tuning values and maintain them, regardless of process changes. Example: Startup and product formula change time fell 40%; production rates of some products increased 35%.

2. Spotlight on Innovation: 2022 Engineers’ Choice Awards

Control Engineering announces the best automation, control and instrumentation products in the 19 categories of the annual Engineers’ Choice Awards program.

3. PID-correction-based control system implementation

The analog PID controller, still considered as the most powerful, can be modified as a discrete-time control system. Equations and examples follow.

4. Industrial IoT made fast and easy

With the tools available today, implementing the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is not as hard as people think.

5. Six ways IIoT expands manufacturing system capabilities

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is best used to expand process control and automation systems capabilities while letting them perform as designed. See six methods on how the IIoT enhances manufacturing.

6. Heat engine with no moving parts designed

MIT researchers have design a heat engine with no moving parts, which could help enable a fully decarbonized power grid in the future.

7. Product advice on easy, affordable modern control, IIoT implementation

Next-generation programmable logic controller (PLC) platforms inexpensively and securely deliver reliable and familiar functionality for basic automated control, combined with advanced features like Wi-Fi and data logging, and increased security measures for Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications, according to a company with a Control Engineering Engineers’ Choice Award product.

8. Intro to setting up, tuning a PM motor with a VFD

A permanent magnet (PM) motor requires a variable frequency drive (VFD) to operate effectively. See motor comparison table, induction motor vs. PM torque curve, and VFD programming and tuning advice.

9. How automation can bolster information control in a factory

Information flow and control on the factory floor can improve automation and help manufacturers make better decisions.

10. Wireless instrumentation communication propels plant processes

Using Bluetooth, WirelessHART and cloud connections, plants and facilities are leveraging increased process and diagnostic data to enhance operational efficiency and decrease downtime.

On Mondays, see the top 5 articles of the prior week.

Chris Vavra, web content manager, Control Engineering, CFE Media and Technology, cvavra@cfemedia.com.


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

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