Instrument technicians should not have to concern themselves over the programming details internal to digital…
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The vast majority of modern process transmitters (both analog and digital) come equipped with a feature known…
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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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Process measurements are often of an analog nature: the temperature of a furnace, the rate of fluid flow…
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As we have seen, the concept of differentiation is finding the rate-of-change of one variable compared to…
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Pipe is a hollow structure designed to provide an enclosed pathway for fluids to flow, usually manufactured…
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A powerful mathematical concept useful for analyzing practically any physical system – electrical…
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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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The reason why a pneumatic control valve’s stem position corresponds linearly to the amount of air…
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The simplest form of 4-20 mA current loop is the type used to represent the output of a process controller,…
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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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Programmable logic controllers are essentially nothing more than special-purpose, industrial computers. As…
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Virtually any mass above absolute zero temperature emits electromagnetic radiation (photons, or light) as a…
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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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A pneumatic controller receives a process variable (PV) signal as a variable air pressure, compares that…
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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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The electrical conductivity of liquids is an important analytical measurement in many industrial processes.…
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Electrical Resistance Resistance (\(R\)) is the dissipative opposition to an electric current, analogous to…
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A completely different way of measuring liquid level in vessels is to bounce a traveling wave off the surface…
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A Safety Instrumented Function, or SIF, is one or more components designed to execute a specific…
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Valve actuators provide force to move control valve trim. For precise positioning of a control valve, there…
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The final element of PID control is the “D” term, which stands for derivative. This is a calculus…
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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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Disconnect Switches Disconnects are switches designed to isolate sections of a power system in case of damage…
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Solids tend to expand when heated. The amount that a solid sample will expand with increased temperature…
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A bridge circuit is basically a pair of voltage dividers where the circuit output is taken as the difference…
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Circuit breakers used in residential, commercial, and light industrial service are self-tripping devices: they…
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Some self-powered (4-wire) analog electronic transmitters are designed to behave as electrical loads rather…
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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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The following photograph shows a large air blower in a wastewater treatment facility equipped with a…
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Although analog electronic process controllers are considered a newer technology than pneumatic process…
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A chemical reaction resulting in a net release of energy is called exothermic. Conversely, a chemical reaction…
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The majority of flowmeter technologies operate on the principle of interpreting fluid flow based on the…
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Every flow-measuring instrument exploits a physical principle to measure the flow rate of fluid stream.…
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This section does not describe a particular type of flowmeter, but rather a design that may be implemented for…
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An interesting parallel to the “unity fraction” unit conversion technique is something referred to…
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Perhaps the most valuable skill an instrument technician can possess is the ability to efficiently diagnose…
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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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An important legacy technology for all kinds of continuous measurement is the self-balancing system. A…
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Impedance in a series circuit is the orthogonal sum of resistance and reactance: \[Z = \sqrt{R^2 + (X_L -…
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Every flow-measuring instrument exploits a physical principle to measure the flow rate of fluid stream.…
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As discussed at the beginning of this chapter, instrumentation safety may be broadly divided into two…
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Filled-bulb systems exploit the principle of fluid expansion to measure temperature. If a fluid is enclosed in…
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Those familiar with industrial instrumentation will find much within the electric power industry remarkably…
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A fundamental principle in instrumentation system troubleshooting is that every instrument has at least one…
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DC electric current signals may also be used to communicate process measurement information from transmitters…
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Atom: the smallest unit of matter that may be isolated by chemical means. Particle: a part of an atom,…
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Measuring the flow rate of liquid through an open channel is not unlike measuring the flow rate of a liquid…
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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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Diagnostic ability is arguably the most difficult skill to develop within a student, and also the most…
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Coy, John J. et. al. (December 2012) Sampled graphic illustrations from his NASA Reference Publication…
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When a high-energy photon strikes an atom, it may eject one of the lower-level electrons from its shell,…
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A control strategy similar to ratio control is relation control. This is similar to ratio control in that a…
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There are several different methods useful for causing an AC induction motor to brake, or slow down: DC…
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A whole class of problem-solving techniques focuses on altering the given problem into a simpler form that is…
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Calculus has a reputation for being difficult to learn, and with good reason. The traditional approach to…
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A bridge circuit is basically a pair of voltage dividers where the circuit output is taken as the difference…
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Control valves are supposed to deliver reliable, repeatable control of process fluid flow rate over a wide…
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Volumes could be written about poor diagnostic technique. The following mistakes are not intended to comprise…
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The term “grid” refers to the conductors and equipment interconnecting power sources to power…
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