Peter Welander, Control Engineering
Articles
Decentralizing process control and information management
The “D” in DCS has always stood for distributed. While the technological drivers behind this networking strategy may have changed, do the basic concepts of distributed intelligence still apply?
Adding Ethernet protocol options
If your device has to be able to communicate using more than one industrial Ethernet protocol, the number of options is growing.
Time to buy that electric car?
Have we reached the tipping point where an electric car will be cheaper? Watch this video.
Back to Basics: Finding, measuring the right product attributes
Tutorial: What characteristics of a product are most important, and how do you measure them? A recent Ask Control Engineering blog question dealt with finding a sensor that would be able to tell if the liquid flowing through a pipe was water or orange juice. This question brought up the larger issue of defining product attributes and finding an appropriate approach for measuring them. What kind of sensors should you use?
Solving Process Instability
Some processes just seem hard to manage: Loops won’t tune, upsets are common, products are off spec. Nothing will run in automatic like it is supposed to and you can’t figure out why. What are the main causes of unruly processes, and how do you fix those at the source? How do you hunt down the causes? This is the June/July 2010 Control Engineering cover story.
An end-user view on wireless instrumentation
What do end users want from wireless, and a wireless standard? Exxon-Mobil's instrumentation team leader weighs in on the ISA100.11a standard.
Protecting Intellectual Property
If a company's knowledge is a valuable asset, how do you keep it from eroding? Can it be protected during critical times such as control system upgrades and migrations?
Process Simulation Use Report
Research respondents say operator training is the most important use of process simulation software. This reflects changing day-to-day operational realities.
EDDL Team Reorganizes for FDI
EDDL Cooperation Team reorganizes itself to become FDI. New unified technical and functional specs scheduled for 2010. Will it turn EDDL and FDT into one common platform? No, nor is that the intent.
Understanding Derivative in PID Control
The third factor in PID is the least understood. Derivative action can do good things, but when used improperly, it causes headaches.