Programmable logic controllers are essentially nothing more than special-purpose, industrial computers. As…
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Light is known to interact with matter in very specific ways, which may be exploited as a means of measuring…
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Imagine a major marathon race, where hundreds of runners gather in one place to compete. When the starting gun…
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The Law of Continuity for fluids states that the product of mass density (\(\rho\)), cross-sectional pipe area…
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Non-dispersive analysis, while newer in discovery than dispersive analysis (Isaac Newton’s 17th-century…
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The two “process variables” we rely on most heavily in the field of electrical measurement and…
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While 50 and 51 (instantaneous and time overcurrent) relay functions monitor line current magnitude and guard…
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As we have seen, the concept of integration is finding the accumulation of one variable multiplied by another…
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In the United States, the most common language used to program PLCs is Ladder Diagram (LD), also known as…
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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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Process measurements are often of an analog nature: the temperature of a furnace, the rate of fluid flow…
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While the term “probability” may evoke images of imprecision, probability is in fact an exact…
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“Radio” systems use electromagnetic fields to communicate information over long distances through…
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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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Phasors are to AC circuit quantities as polarity is to DC circuit quantities: a way to express the…
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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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Instrument technicians should not have to concern themselves over the programming details internal to digital…
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The efficient identification and correction of instrument calibration errors is an important function for…
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“Feedforward” is a rather under-used control strategy capable of managing a great many types of…
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RTDs are completely passive sensing elements, requiring the application of an externally-sourced electric…
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The following animation shows how the “rotating” magnetic field of a three-phase AC induction…
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A sliding-stem valve body is one where the moving parts slide with a linear motion. Some examples of…
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Learning from reading printed text is a kind of problem-solving activity it is own right. The problem is how…
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(Will be addressed in future versions of this book)
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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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A different strategy for controlling the flow of fluid is to insert a rotary element into the flow path.…
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The Law of Mass Conservation states that matter can neither be created nor destroyed. The Law of Energy…
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Feedback obtained from industrial users of FF reveal a common pattern: Fieldbus is a powerful and reliable…
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Electrical power grids primarily consist of three-phase AC circuits. This means most power lines (transmission…
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Recall that an exothermic chemical reaction is one that releases a net sum of energy, as opposed to an…
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An important legacy technology for all kinds of continuous measurement is the self-balancing system. 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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The disadvantages of pneumatic instruments are painfully evident to anyone familiar with both pneumatic and…
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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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What is Calibration? To calibrate an instrument means to check and adjust (if necessary) its response so the…
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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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The following animation shows a rotating phasor in three-dimensional form. The phasor rotates in a complex…
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Up until this point, we have explored various types of instrumentation diagram, each one making reference to…
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A fundamental principle in instrumentation system troubleshooting is that every instrument has at least one…
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