Latest Metal Education

Categories

Bi-metal Temperature Sensors

Bi-metal Temperature Sensors

Solids tend to expand when heated. The amount that a solid sample will expand with increased temperature…


Textbook

Teaching Diagnostic Principles and Practices

Teaching Diagnostic Principles and Practices

Diagnostic ability is arguably the most difficult skill to develop within a student, and also the most…


Textbook

Pneumatic Actuator Response

Pneumatic Actuator Response

A limitation inherent to pneumatic valve actuators is the amount of air flow required to or from the actuator…


Textbook

Radio-energy Pulse in Guided-wave Radar Level Measurement

Radio-energy Pulse in Guided-wave Radar Level Measurement

The following animation shows how a radio-energy pulse travels down and then up the waveguide of a guided-wave…


Textbook

Capacitive Level Measurement

Capacitive Level Measurement

Capacitive level instruments measure electrical capacitance of a conductive rod inserted vertically into a…


Textbook

Boiler Water Level Control System Example

Boiler Water Level Control System Example

Steam boilers are very common in industry, principally because steam power is so useful. Common uses for steam…


Textbook

Proximity Switches

Proximity Switches

A proximity switch is one detecting the proximity (closeness) of some object. By definition, these switches…


Textbook

Introduction to Protective Relaying

Introduction to Protective Relaying

Circuit breakers used in residential, commercial, and light industrial service are self-tripping devices: they…


Textbook

DC Motor Speed Control

DC Motor Speed Control

DC electric motors generate torque by a reaction between two magnetic fields: one field established by…


Textbook

Motives for Compromising the Security of an Industrial Control System

Motives for Compromising the Security of an Industrial Control System

There are multiple motives for compromising the security of an industrial control system, some of which…


Textbook

Molecular Quantities

Molecular Quantities

Sample sizes of chemical substances are often measured in moles. One mole of a substance is defined as a…


Textbook

Level Switches

Level Switches

A level switch is one detecting the level of liquid or solid (granules or powder) in a vessel. Level switches…


Textbook

Assessing Student Learning

Assessing Student Learning

As a general rule, high achievement only takes place in an atmosphere of high expectations. Sometimes these…


Textbook

How to Teach Yourself PLC Programming

How to Teach Yourself PLC Programming

Learning PLC programming is a very important skill. If your job involves programming, then you will likely…


Textbook

Proper Care and Feeding of Pneumatic Instruments

Proper Care and Feeding of Pneumatic Instruments

Perhaps the most important rule to obey when using pneumatic instruments is to maintain clean and dry…


Textbook

Introduction to Inductors and Inductance

Introduction to Inductors and Inductance

Any conductor possesses a characteristic called inductance: the ability to store energy in the form of a…


Textbook

An Analogy for Calibration Vs Ranging

An Analogy for Calibration Vs Ranging

The concepts of calibration (trimming) and ranging are often difficult for new students of instrumentation to…


Textbook

Change-of-quantity Flow Measurement

Change-of-quantity Flow Measurement

Flow, by definition, is the passage of material from one location to another over time. So far this chapter…


Textbook

Structured Text (ST) Programming

Structured Text (ST) Programming

(Will be addressed in future versions of this book)


Textbook

Sliding-stem Valves

Sliding-stem Valves

A sliding-stem valve body is one where the moving parts slide with a linear motion. Some examples of…


Textbook

Basic Operation of a Gas Chromatograph

Basic Operation of a Gas Chromatograph

This animation shows the basic operation of a gas chromatograph, showing the separation of different molecular…


Textbook

Atomic Theory and Chemical Symbols

Atomic Theory and Chemical Symbols

The three “elementary” particles of matter comprising all atoms are electrons, protons, and…


Textbook

Limit, Selector, and Override Controls

Limit, Selector, and Override Controls

Another category of control strategies involves the use of signal relays or function blocks with the ability…


Textbook

Vibration Monitoring Hardware

Vibration Monitoring Hardware

The following photograph shows a large air blower in a wastewater treatment facility equipped with a…


Textbook

Self-balancing Pneumatic Instruments Principles

Self-balancing Pneumatic Instruments Principles

A great many precision instruments use the principle of balance to measure some quantity. Perhaps the simplest…


Textbook

ANSI/IEEE Function Number Codes

ANSI/IEEE Function Number Codes

In the United States, the ANSI and IEEE organizations have standardized a set of numerical codes referring to…


Textbook

Applications of Spectroscopy for Analytical Measurement

Applications of Spectroscopy for Analytical Measurement

Much of our knowledge about atomic structure comes from experimental data relating the interaction between…


Textbook

Teaching Technical Theory

Teaching Technical Theory

Learning is not merely a process of information transfer. It is first and foremost a transformation of…


Textbook

Practical Topic Coverage

Practical Topic Coverage

Nearly every technical course teaches and tests students on definitions, basic concepts, and at least some…


Textbook

Glossary of Cyber-security Terms

Glossary of Cyber-security Terms

Cyber-security seems to have its own vocabulary, ranging from unwieldy technical acronyms to slang terms…


Textbook

Heuristic PID Tuning Procedures

Heuristic PID Tuning Procedures

In contrast to quantitative tuning procedures where definite numerical values for P, I, and D controller…


Textbook

Variable-area Flowmeters

Variable-area Flowmeters

An variable-area flowmeter is one where the fluid must pass through a restriction whose area increases with…


Textbook

Common Control Valve Problems

Common Control Valve Problems

Valves can experience a number of problems, most of them either preventable or repairable. These problems can…


Textbook

2-wire (“loop-powered”) Transmitter Current Loops

2-wire (“loop-powered”) Transmitter Current Loops

It is possible to convey electrical power and communicate analog information over the same two wires using 4…


Textbook

Electromagnetism Basics

Electromagnetism Basics

The fundamental principle of electromagnetism is that an electric current will create a magnetic field at…


Textbook

The Concept of Integration

The Concept of Integration

Suppose we wished to measure the consumption of propane over time for a large propane storage tank supplying a…


Textbook

Controller Output Current Loops

Controller Output Current Loops

The simplest form of 4-20 mA current loop is the type used to represent the output of a process controller,…


Textbook

Flow Measurement in Open Channels

Flow Measurement in Open Channels

Measuring the flow rate of liquid through an open channel is not unlike measuring the flow rate of a liquid…


Textbook

Ladder Diagram (LD) Programming Contacts and Coils

Ladder Diagram (LD) Programming Contacts and Coils

In the United States, the most common language used to program PLCs is Ladder Diagram (LD), also known as…


Textbook

Using Manometers for Measuring Pressure

Using Manometers for Measuring Pressure

A very simple device used to measure pressure is the manometer: a fluid-filled tube where an applied gas…


Textbook

Introduction to Optical Analysis

Introduction to Optical Analysis

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


Textbook