Introduction to Optical Analysis

Light is known to interact with matter in very specific ways, which may be exploited as a means of measuring…

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Circuit Breakers and Disconnects

Disconnect Switches Disconnects are switches designed to isolate sections of a power system in case of damage…

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Understanding Area, Volume and Common Geometry

Area refers to the size of two-dimensional surface. Volume refers to the size of a three-dimensional space. To…

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Analog Signal Conditioning and Referencing

Modern analog-to-digital converters are phenomenally accurate, dependable, repeatable, and surprisingly…

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PID Control Terminology

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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Metric Prefixes and Prefix Scale

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Integral (Reset) Control

Imagine a liquid-level control system for a vessel, where the position of a level-sensing float sets the…

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Pneumatic Instruments

The disadvantages of pneumatic instruments are painfully evident to anyone familiar with both pneumatic and…

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On/off Control (Bang-bang Control)

Once while working as an instrument technician in an aluminum foundry, a mechanic asked me what it was that I…

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Chemical Reactor Temperature Control Example

Sometimes we encounter a diversity of instrument signal standards in one control system. Such is the case with…

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Thermocouple Types, Junctions, Connector and Tip Styles

RTDs are completely passive sensing elements, requiring the application of an externally-sourced electric…

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Relation Control

A control strategy similar to ratio control is relation control. This is similar to ratio control in that a…

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Instrument and Process Equipment Symbols

This section shows some of the many instrument symbols found in different types of technical diagrams used to…

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Valve Packing

Regardless of valve type, all stem-actuated control valves require some form of seal allowing motion of the…

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Introduction to Capacitors and Capacitance

Capacitance Any two electrical conductors separated by an insulating medium possess the characteristic called…

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Chemiluminescence Measurement

Recall that an exothermic chemical reaction is one that releases a net sum of energy, as opposed to an…

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How Derivatives and Integrals Relate to One Another

Like many other mathematical operations, the derivative and the integral perform inverse operations from each…

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Proportional-only Control

Imagine a liquid-level control system for a vessel, where the position of a level-sensing float directly sets…

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VSD and VFD Motor Drive Features

Modern DC and AC motor drives provide features useful when using electric motors as final control elements.…

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4-wire “Passive” Versus “Active” Output Transmitters

Some self-powered (4-wire) analog electronic transmitters are designed to behave as electrical loads rather…

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