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Circuit Breakers and Disconnects

Circuit Breakers and Disconnects

Disconnect Switches Disconnects are switches designed to isolate sections of a power system in case of damage…


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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…


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Distance (21) Protection

Distance (21) Protection

A form of protection against faults on long-distance power lines is called distance relaying, so named because…


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Digital Multimeter (DMM) Tips and Tricks

Digital Multimeter (DMM) Tips and Tricks

The digital multimeter (DMM) is quite possibly the most useful tool in the instrument technician’s…


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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…


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Zero and Span Adjustments (Analog Instruments)

Zero and Span Adjustments (Analog Instruments)

Linearity of Measurement Instruments The purpose of calibration is to ensure the input and output of an…


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Supervisory Control

Supervisory Control

In a manually-controlled process, a human operator directly actuates some form of final control element…


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Analog Electronic PID Controllers

Analog Electronic PID Controllers

Constructing PID control systems using discrete components is a fairly simple method involving operational…


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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…


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Proportional-only Offset

Proportional-only Offset

A fundamental limitation of proportional control has to do with its response to changes in setpoint and…


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Ultrasonic (Sound) Echo Level Measurement

Ultrasonic (Sound) Echo Level Measurement

A completely different way of measuring liquid level in vessels is to bounce a traveling wave off the surface…


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Filled-bulb Temperature Sensors

Filled-bulb Temperature Sensors

Filled-bulb systems exploit the principle of fluid expansion to measure temperature. If a fluid is enclosed in…


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Valve Positioners

Valve Positioners

The reason why a pneumatic control valve’s stem position corresponds linearly to the amount of air…


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Polyphase AC Power

Polyphase AC Power

“Polyphase” means “many phases,” describing a form of AC electrical system where…


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Numerical Differentiation

Numerical Differentiation

As we have seen, the concept of differentiation is finding the rate-of-change of one variable compared to…


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Rotary-stem Valves

Rotary-stem Valves

A different strategy for controlling the flow of fluid is to insert a rotary element into the flow path.…


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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…


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Practical PID Controller Features

Practical PID Controller Features

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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Basics of Bridge Circuits

Basics of Bridge Circuits

A bridge circuit is basically a pair of voltage dividers where the circuit output is taken as the difference…


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Vibration Physics

Vibration Physics

One very convenient feature of waves is that their properties are universal. Waves of water in the ocean,…


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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…


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New Content

New Content

Coy, John J. et. al. (December 2012) Sampled graphic illustrations from his NASA Reference Publication…


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Pipe and Pipe Fittings

Pipe and Pipe Fittings

Pipe is a hollow structure designed to provide an enclosed pathway for fluids to flow, usually manufactured…


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Functional Diagrams: the Flow of Information within a Control System

Functional Diagrams: the Flow of Information within a Control System

A unique form of technical diagram for describing the abstract functions comprising a control system (e.g. PID…


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PID Control Terminology

PID Control Terminology

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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On/off Control (Bang-bang Control)

On/off Control (Bang-bang Control)

Once while working as an instrument technician in an aluminum foundry, a mechanic asked me what it was that I…


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FOUNDATION Fieldbus H1 Protocol Data Link Layer

FOUNDATION Fieldbus H1 Protocol Data Link Layer

Like so many other industrial data networks, FOUNDATION Fieldbus is an “unswitched” or…


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Scientific System diagnosis and Scientific Reasoning

Scientific System diagnosis and Scientific Reasoning

At the root of successful system diagnosis is a rigorous adherence to scientific reasoning. There exists no…


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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…


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Introduction to Protective Relaying

Introduction to Protective Relaying

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


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Industrial Instrumentation Summary for Teachers

Industrial Instrumentation Summary for Teachers

To summarize some of the key points and concepts for teaching: Do not waste class time transmitting facts to…


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FOUNDATION Fieldbus Design Philosophy

FOUNDATION Fieldbus Design Philosophy

To understand just how different FOUNDATION Fieldbus is from other digital instrument systems, consider a…


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Mechanical Vibration Switches

Mechanical Vibration Switches

A much simpler alternative to continuous vibration sensors (displacement or acceleration) and monitoring…


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Unit Conversions and Physical Constants

Unit Conversions and Physical Constants

Converting between disparate units of measurement is the bane of many science students. The problem is worse…


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Dampers and Louvres

Dampers and Louvres

A damper (otherwise known as a louvre) is a multi-element flow control device generally used to throttle large…


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Relay Circuits and Ladder Diagrams

Relay Circuits and Ladder Diagrams

Electromechanical relays may be connected together to perform logic and control functions, acting as logic…


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Fluid Power Systems

Fluid Power Systems

Given the ability of pressurized fluids to transmit force over long distances, it is not surprising that many…


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Practical Measures of Reliability

Practical Measures of Reliability

In reliability engineering, it is important to be able to quantity the reliability (or conversely, the…


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Pneumatic PID Controllers

Pneumatic PID Controllers

A pneumatic controller receives a process variable (PV) signal as a variable air pressure, compares that…


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Digital Representation of Text

Digital Representation of Text

Binary patterns are not just able to represent numerical values. Given a standardized code, they may represent…


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WirelessHART Radio Communication Standard

WirelessHART Radio Communication Standard

An exciting development in industrial instrumentation is the WirelessHART radio communication standard,…


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Electromagnetism Basics

Electromagnetism Basics

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


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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…


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Flow Measurement from Differential Pressure

Flow Measurement from Differential Pressure

Take for instance the problem of measuring fluid flow through a pipe. To the layperson, this may seem to be a…


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Analog to Digital Conversion and ADCs

Analog to Digital Conversion and ADCs

In order to provide an interface between the internal (digital) world of a computer and the external (analog)…


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Material Volume Measurement

Material Volume Measurement

A variety of technologies exist to measure the quantity of stored material in a vessel. For liquid…


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Wastewater Disinfection Example

Wastewater Disinfection Example

The final step in treating wastewater before releasing it into the natural environment is to kill any harmful…


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Introduction to Protective Relaying

Introduction to Protective Relaying

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


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Standardized Volumetric Flow

Standardized Volumetric Flow

The majority of flowmeter technologies operate on the principle of interpreting fluid flow based on the…


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Periodic Table of the Elements

Periodic Table of the Elements

All substances are comprised of various elements in various combinations and proportions. Elements may thus be…


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Practical Measures of Reliability

Practical Measures of Reliability

In reliability engineering, it is important to be able to quantity the reliability (or conversely, the…


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Electrical Resistance and Ohm’s Law

Electrical Resistance and Ohm’s Law

To review, voltage is the measure of potential energy available to electric charges. Current is the uniform…


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Ultrasonic (Sound) Echo Level Measurement

Ultrasonic (Sound) Echo Level Measurement

A completely different way of measuring liquid level in vessels is to bounce a traveling wave off the surface…


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Level Gauges (Sightglasses)

Level Gauges (Sightglasses)

Level gauges are perhaps the simplest indicating instrument for liquid level in a vessel. They are often found…


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Calibration Errors and Testing

Calibration Errors and Testing

The efficient identification and correction of instrument calibration errors is an important function for…


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Pipe and Pipe Fittings

Pipe and Pipe Fittings

Pipe is a hollow structure designed to provide an enclosed pathway for fluids to flow, usually manufactured…


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Common Diagnostic Mistakes in Control Systems

Common Diagnostic Mistakes in Control Systems

Volumes could be written about poor diagnostic technique. The following mistakes are not intended to comprise…


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Variable-area Flowmeters

Variable-area Flowmeters

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


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Dampers and Louvres

Dampers and Louvres

A damper (otherwise known as a louvre) is a multi-element flow control device generally used to throttle large…


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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…


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