Programmable logic controllers are essentially nothing more than special-purpose, industrial computers. As…
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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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Human-machine interfaces, or HMIs, are a critical part of nearly all control systems, complementing the…
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“Feedforward” is a rather under-used control strategy capable of managing a great many types of…
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Hydrogen ion activity in aqueous (water-solvent) solutions is a very important parameter for a wide variety of…
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An extremely important topic in engineering is that of transfer functions. Simply defined, a transfer function…
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A technological advance introduced in the late 1980’s was HART, an acronym standing for Highway…
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Constructing PID control systems using discrete components is a fairly simple method involving operational…
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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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Diagnostic ability is arguably the most difficult skill to develop within a student, and also the most…
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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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As we have seen, feedforward control is a way to improve the stability of a feedback control system in the…
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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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Perhaps the most valuable skill an instrument technician can possess is the ability to efficiently diagnose…
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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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The vast majority of PID controllers in service today are digital in nature. Microprocessors executing PID…
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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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The Law of Continuity for fluids states that the product of mass density (\(\rho\)), cross-sectional pipe area…
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Valves can experience a number of problems, most of them either preventable or repairable. These problems can…
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While 50 and 51 (instantaneous and time overcurrent) relay functions monitor line current magnitude and guard…
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A very common method for directly controlling low flow rates of fluids is to use a device known as a metering…
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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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Once while working as an instrument technician in an aluminum foundry, a mechanic asked me what it was that I…
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Current is the name we give to the motion of electric charges from a point of high potential to a point of low…
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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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In order for any PID controller to be practical, it must be able to do more than just implement the PID…
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While the term “probability” may evoke images of imprecision, probability is in fact an exact…
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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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A level switch is one detecting the level of liquid or solid (granules or powder) in a vessel. Level switches…
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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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Using filter cells to eliminate wavelengths associated with interfering gases is called positive filtering in…
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The two “process variables” we rely on most heavily in the field of electrical measurement and…
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One of the marks of a successful problem-solver is a habit of applying general principles to every new problem…
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Cyber-security seems to have its own vocabulary, ranging from unwieldy technical acronyms to slang terms…
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The term “grid” refers to the conductors and equipment interconnecting power sources to power…
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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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Lipták, Béla G. et al., Instrument Engineers’ Handbook – Process Measurement and Analysis Volume I,…
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The transformer is one of the most important components in all of AC circuitry. Principally used to…
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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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