In the United States, the ANSI and IEEE organizations have standardized a set of numerical codes referring to…
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Disconnect Switches Disconnects are switches designed to isolate sections of a power system in case of damage…
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Learning PLC programming is a very important skill. If your job involves programming, then you will likely…
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Perhaps the most basic and necessary protective relay function is overcurrent: commanding a circuit breaker to…
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The digital multimeter (DMM) is quite possibly the most useful tool in the instrument technician’s…
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“Polyphase” means “many phases,” describing a form of AC electrical system where…
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License By exercising the Licensed Rights (defined…
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An electric motor is often used as a discrete control element in a control system if driving a pump, conveyor…
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Electromechanical relays may be connected together to perform logic and control functions, acting as logic…
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Virtually any mass above absolute zero temperature emits electromagnetic radiation (photons, or light) as a…
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The simple PLC ladder diagram (LD) commands consist of contacts and coils, arranged in sequences that mimic…
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The reason why a pneumatic control valve’s stem position corresponds linearly to the amount of air…
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All masses require force to accelerate (we can also think of this in terms of the mass generating a reaction…
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The two “process variables” we rely on most heavily in the field of electrical measurement and…
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An important type of “accessory” relay, especially for legacy electromechanical protective relays,…
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Circuit breakers used in residential, commercial, and light industrial service are self-tripping devices: they…
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Those familiar with industrial instrumentation will find much within the electric power industry remarkably…
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Any physical location in an industrial facility harboring the potential of explosion due to the presence of…
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Regulating the electric power sent to an electric motor is a task performed by high-speed switching…
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A fluid is any substance having the ability to flow: to freely change shape and move under the influence of a…
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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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The final step in treating wastewater before releasing it into the natural environment is to kill any harmful…
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To review, voltage is the measure of potential energy available to electric charges. Current is the uniform…
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Fieldbus devices require far more attention in their initial setup and commissioning than their analog…
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The transformer is one of the most important components in all of AC circuitry. Principally used to…
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A wise PLC programmer once told me that the first thing any aspiring programmer should learn about the PLC…
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As described earlier in this chapter, calibration refers to the adjustment of an instrument so its output…
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A very common method for directly controlling low flow rates of fluids is to use a device known as a metering…
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Current is the name we give to the motion of electric charges from a point of high potential to a point of low…
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A very common form of on/off valve used for pneumatic and hydraulic systems alike is the solenoid valve. A…
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This animation shows the basic operation of a gas chromatograph, showing the separation of different molecular…
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Human-machine interfaces, or HMIs, are a critical part of nearly all control systems, complementing the…
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The three “elementary” particles of matter comprising all atoms are electrons, protons, and…
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Sample sizes of chemical substances are often measured in moles. One mole of a substance is defined as a…
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The advent of “smart” field instruments containing microprocessors has been a great advance for…
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Regardless of valve type, all stem-actuated control valves require some form of seal allowing motion of the…
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A level switch is one detecting the level of liquid or solid (granules or powder) in a vessel. Level switches…
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By definition, a source is a device delivering energy into a system, while a load is a device extracting…
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Learning is not merely a process of information transfer. It is first and foremost a transformation of…
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Some self-powered (4-wire) analog electronic transmitters are designed to behave as electrical loads rather…
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RTDs are completely passive sensing elements, requiring the application of an externally-sourced electric…
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PID control can be a confusing concept to understand. Here, a brief summary of each term within PID (P. I, and…
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Imagine a liquid-level control system for a vessel, where the position of a level-sensing float sets the…
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The reason why a pneumatic control valve’s stem position corresponds linearly to the amount of air…
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Diagnostic ability is arguably the most difficult skill to develop within a student, and also the most…
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(Will be addressed in future versions of this book)
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Perhaps the most important rule to obey when using pneumatic instruments is to maintain clean and dry…
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Earlier in this chapter you were shown a model of a nitrogen atom with a dense nucleus (comprised of protons…
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Like many other mathematical operations, the derivative and the integral perform inverse operations from each…
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To better understand the design and operation of self-balancing pneumatic mechanisms, it is helpful to examine…
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Programmable logic controllers are essentially nothing more than special-purpose, industrial computers. As…
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Developed by the Modicon company (the original manufacturer of the Programmable Logic Controller, or PLC) in…
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Capacitance Any two electrical conductors separated by an insulating medium possess the characteristic called…
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Light has long been used as a long-range signaling medium. While communication by light through open air is…
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Learning PLC programming is a very important skill. If your job involves programming, then you will likely…
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Capacitors store energy in electric fields, proportional to the square of voltage. Inductors store energy in…
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The electrical conductivity of liquids is an important analytical measurement in many industrial processes.…
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This animation shows the basic operation of a gas chromatograph, showing the separation of different molecular…
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An engineer named Bob Metcalfe conceived the idea of Ethernet in 1973, while working for the Xerox research…
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When control valves operate between fully open and fully shut, they serve much the same purpose in process…
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