As discussed at the beginning of this chapter, instrumentation safety may be broadly divided into two…
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Developed by the Modicon company (the original manufacturer of the Programmable Logic Controller, or PLC) in…
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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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(Will be addressed in future versions of this book)
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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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Modern DC and AC motor drives provide features useful when using electric motors as final control elements.…
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Programmable logic controllers are essentially nothing more than special-purpose, industrial computers. As…
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License By exercising the Licensed Rights (defined…
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Electromechanical relays may be connected together to perform logic and control functions, acting as logic…
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The purpose of a control valve actuator is to provide the motive force to operate a valve mechanism. Both…
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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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In order to provide an interface between the internal (digital) world of a computer and the external (analog)…
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The following photograph shows a large air blower in a wastewater treatment facility equipped with a…
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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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In addition to directly performing logic functions, electromechanical relays may also be used as interposing…
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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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A unique form of technical diagram for describing the abstract functions comprising a control system (e.g. PID…
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Human-machine interfaces, or HMIs, are a critical part of nearly all control systems, complementing the…
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Labwork is an essential part of any science-based curriculum. Here, much improvement may be made over the…
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These fortifications focus on human behavior rather than system design or component selection. In some ways…
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The very purpose of physics is to quantitatively describe and explain the physical world in as few terms as…
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In some process applications, it is important that the control valve be able to completely stop fluid flow…
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As a general rule, high achievement only takes place in an atmosphere of high expectations. Sometimes these…
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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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A variety of problem-solving techniques have been presented for students over the years which are all helpful…
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As previously defined, calibration refers to the checking and adjustment of an instrument so that its output…
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Circuit breakers used in residential, commercial, and light industrial service are self-tripping devices: they…
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Most of these formulae appear in molecular chemical form rather than structural form. For example, ethanol…
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A much simpler alternative to continuous vibration sensors (displacement or acceleration) and monitoring…
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There are multiple motives for compromising the security of an industrial control system, some of which…
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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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Several different technologies exist for the conversion of fluid pressure into an electrical signal response.…
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In November of 2007 a new computer virus was submitted to a virus scanning service. The purpose of this new…
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The majority of flowmeter technologies operate on the principle of interpreting fluid flow based on the…
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A pressure switch is one that detects the presence of fluid pressure. Pressure switches often use diaphragms…
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Coy, John J. et. al. (December 2012) Sampled graphic illustrations from his NASA Reference Publication…
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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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“Polyphase” means “many phases,” describing a form of AC electrical system where…
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In order to provide an interface between the internal (digital) world of a computer and the external (analog)…
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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 concepts of calibration (trimming) and ranging are often difficult for new students of instrumentation to…
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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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Three-phase AC is the dominant mode of electric power generation and distribution in modern societies.…
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The following photograph shows a large air blower in a wastewater treatment facility equipped with a…
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One of the simplest classes of temperature sensor is one where temperature effects a change in electrical…
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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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In the United States, the ANSI and IEEE organizations have standardized a set of numerical codes referring to…
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A much simpler alternative to continuous vibration sensors (displacement or acceleration) and monitoring…
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(Will be addressed in future versions of this book)
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The advent of “smart” field instruments containing microprocessors has been a great advance for…
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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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Recall that an exothermic chemical reaction is one that releases a net sum of energy, as opposed to an…
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The following animation shows how the “rotating” magnetic field of a three-phase AC induction…
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The following animation shows how a radio-energy pulse travels down and then up the waveguide of a guided-wave…
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An variable-area flowmeter is one where the fluid must pass through a restriction whose area increases with…
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Most pneumatic instruments use a simple but highly sensitive mechanism for converting mechanical motion into…
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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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Like so many other industrial data networks, FOUNDATION Fieldbus is an “unswitched” or…
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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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In modern industry, the most popular form of field-level signal transmission for variable industrial…
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