Stoichiometry is the accounting of atoms before and after a chemical reaction. It is an expression of the Law…
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The next level of detail is the Process and Instrument Diagram, or P&ID. Here, we see a “zooming…
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A machine in the broad sense of the word is any device designed to translate some form of energy into useful…
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The fundamental principle of electromagnetism is that an electric current will create a magnetic field at…
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Filled-bulb systems exploit the principle of fluid expansion to measure temperature. If a fluid is enclosed in…
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Nearly every technical course teaches and tests students on definitions, basic concepts, and at least some…
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Impedance in a series circuit is the orthogonal sum of resistance and reactance: \[Z = \sqrt{R^2 + (X_L -…
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A simple control system drawn in block diagram form looks like this: Information from the measuring device…
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Although it seems each model of PLC has its own idiosyncratic standard for programming, there does exist an…
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Valves can experience a number of problems, most of them either preventable or repairable. These problems can…
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A variety of technologies exist to measure the quantity of stored material in a vessel. For liquid…
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The following animation shows the calculus concepts of differentiation and integration (with respect to time)…
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Developed by the Modicon company (the original manufacturer of the Programmable Logic Controller, or PLC) in…
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Layer 1 of the OSI Reference Model is where we define the “physical” elements of a digital data…
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Mechanical pressure-sensing elements include the bellows, the diaphragm, and the bourdon tube. Each of these…
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An important legacy technology for all kinds of continuous measurement is the self-balancing system. A…
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A positive displacement flowmeter is a cyclic mechanism built to pass a fixed volume of fluid through with…
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Fieldbus devices require far more attention in their initial setup and commissioning than their analog…
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An important design parameter of a control valve is the position it will “fail” to if it loses…
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RTDs are completely passive sensing elements, requiring the application of an externally-sourced electric…
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A damper (otherwise known as a louvre) is a multi-element flow control device generally used to throttle large…
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Certain types of nuclear radiation easily penetrates the walls of industrial vessels, but is attenuated by…
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Some self-powered (4-wire) analog electronic transmitters are designed to behave as electrical loads rather…
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Suppose we wished to measure the rate of propane gas flow through a hose to a torch: Flowmeters appropriate…
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The following collection of photographs chronicles the complete disassembly of a Fisher E-body globe valve…
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Many years ago, when I was first learning about electricity, I happened to discover a length of coaxial…
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Binary patterns are not just able to represent numerical values. Given a standardized code, they may represent…
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Classical mechanics (often called Newtonian mechanics in honor of Isaac Newton) deal with forces and motions…
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To understand just how different FOUNDATION Fieldbus is from other digital instrument systems, consider a…
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An exciting development in industrial instrumentation is the WirelessHART radio communication standard,…
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AC induction motors are based on the principle of a rotating magnetic field produced by a set of stationary…
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Mechanical pressure-sensing elements include the bellows, the diaphragm, and the bourdon tube. Each of these…
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These fortifications focus on human behavior rather than system design or component selection. In some ways…
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As we have seen, feedforward control is a way to improve the stability of a feedback control system in the…
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One of the fundamental laws of electric circuits is Kirchhoff’s Current Law, which states the algebraic…
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In this section I will show screenshots from a process loop simulation program illustrating the effectiveness…
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A limit switch detects the physical motion of an object by direct contact with that object. An example of a…
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As defined previously, calibration means the comparison and adjustment (if necessary) of an instrument’s…
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Once while working as an instrument technician in an aluminum foundry, a mechanic asked me what it was that I…
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