Programmable logic controllers are essentially nothing more than special-purpose, industrial computers. As…
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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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Every programmable logic controller must have some means of receiving and interpreting signals from real-world…
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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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An engineer named Bob Metcalfe conceived the idea of Ethernet in 1973, while working for the Xerox research…
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Many years ago, when I was first learning about electricity, I happened to discover a length of coaxial…
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Cyber-security seems to have its own vocabulary, ranging from unwieldy technical acronyms to slang terms…
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In a manually-controlled process, a human operator directly actuates some form of final control element…
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An exciting development in industrial instrumentation is the WirelessHART radio communication standard,…
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One of the great benefits of digital technology is the ability to communicate vast amounts of information over…
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A design-based fortification is one rooted in technical details of system architecture and functionality. Some…
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Developed by the Modicon company (the original manufacturer of the Programmable Logic Controller, or PLC) in…
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These fortifications focus on human behavior rather than system design or component selection. In some ways…
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I remember first learning about the world-wide Internet, and wondering what it actually looked like. The first…
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The vast majority of PID controllers in service today are digital in nature. Microprocessors executing PID…
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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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There are multiple motives for compromising the security of an industrial control system, some of which…
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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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At the next OSI Reference Model layer (layer 4) is a set of protocols specifying how reliable communication…
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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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A level switch is one detecting the level of liquid or solid (granules or powder) in a vessel. Level switches…
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All masses require force to accelerate (we can also think of this in terms of the mass generating a reaction…
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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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By definition, a source is a device delivering energy into a system, while a load is a device extracting…
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There is much to be said for neatness of assembly in electrical signal wiring. Even though the electrons…
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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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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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Two extremely important principles in electric circuits were codified by Gustav Robert Kirchhoff in the year…
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This section shows some of the many instrument symbols found in different types of technical diagrams used to…
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Most people reading this book have likely had the experience of adjusting water temperature using two hand…
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An important type of “accessory” relay, especially for legacy electromechanical protective relays,…
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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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As defined previously, calibration means the comparison and adjustment (if necessary) of an instrument’s…
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Mechanical pressure-sensing elements include the bellows, the diaphragm, and the bourdon tube. Each of these…
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Instrument technicians should not have to concern themselves over the programming details internal to digital…
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Perhaps the most confusing aspect of discrete sensors is the definition of a sensor’s normal status.…
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Multiple accessories exist for pressure-sensing devices to function optimally in challenging process…
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A much simpler alternative to continuous vibration sensors (displacement or acceleration) and monitoring…
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Learning is not merely a process of information transfer. It is first and foremost a transformation of…
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The majority of flowmeter technologies operate on the principle of interpreting fluid flow based on the…
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Some self-powered (4-wire) analog electronic transmitters are designed to behave as electrical loads rather…
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Displacer level instruments exploit Archimedes’ Principle to detect liquid level by continuously…
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Classical mechanics (often called Newtonian mechanics in honor of Isaac Newton) deal with forces and motions…
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At the root of successful system diagnosis is a rigorous adherence to scientific reasoning. There exists no…
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Another category of control strategies involves the use of signal relays or function blocks with the ability…
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Perhaps the most important rule to obey when using pneumatic instruments is to maintain clean and dry…
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RTDs are completely passive sensing elements, requiring the application of an externally-sourced electric…
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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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Data-processing modules within FF systems are known as function blocks. Sometimes these blocks serve merely to…
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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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A different strategy for controlling the flow of fluid is to insert a rotary element into the flow path.…
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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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Electrical Resistance Resistance (\(R\)) is the dissipative opposition to an electric current, analogous to…
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Finally, we arrive at the loop diagram (sometimes called a loop sheet) for the compressor surge control system…
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A very common form of on/off valve used for pneumatic and hydraulic systems alike is the solenoid valve. A…
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Perhaps the most confusing aspect of discrete sensors is the definition of a sensor’s normal status.…
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The advent of “smart” field instruments containing microprocessors has been a great advance for…
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(Will be addressed in future versions of this book)
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Modern analog-to-digital converters are phenomenally accurate, dependable, repeatable, and surprisingly…
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