Activity
  • PID Control History and Advancements

    PID (proportional-integral-derivative) control, a foundational control technology for process manufacturers, has been with us since the early 1900s. In a Control Engineering article, Evolving PID Tuning Rules – A Brief History, Starting With The Earliest...
  • Addressing Loop Interaction

    In some cases, the manipulated parameter of one control loop can impact the controlled parameter of another control loop as illustrated below. To allow both loops to operate in automatic mode, loop interaction is most often addressed by simply detuning one of the control loops by reducing the proportional gain. The valve (or another final … Continue reading » Read the full text.
  • Split Range Setup

    One of the most common ways of addressing multiple process inputs is split range control. A splitter block, which appears as one valve to the PID block, can be used in the control strategy to define a fixed relationship between the controller output and each manipulated process input. In Advanced Control Foundation – Tools, Techniques, … Continue reading » Read the full text.
  • Integrated Power in Foundation Fieldbus Card Streamlines Projects

    In a post last week announcing an update to the Foundation Fieldbus Segment Design Tool, and another post highlighting its availability to members of the DeltaV LinkedIn group, Emerson’s Jonas Berge shared some excellent thoughts that I wanted to pass...
  • Impact of Changing Process Gain

    From a control perspective, it is highly desirable that the process gain is constant. If the process gain is constant, then the same proportional gain can be used over the entire operating range of the control loop. Using a control valve as an example, if the valve characteristic was not properly selected based on the … Continue reading » Read the full text.
  • Updated Foundation Fieldbus Segment Design Tool

    The diagnostics available in smart instrumentation can help to improve process efficiency, reduce unplanned downtime, reduce maintenance costs, and more. I received word that a valuable tool, the Foundation Fieldbus Segment Design Tool, has been updated...
  • Adopting Smart Instrumentation Diagnostic Operator Alert Standard

    The Fieldbus Foundation has been collaborating with the international process industry end-user association, NAMUR, to adopt the NAMUR NE-107 standard as part of the Fieldbus Foundation’s Diagnostics Profile Specification (FF-912). The purpose of this...
  • Updated M-series Sequence of Events Card Product Data Sheet

    DeltaV Sequence of Events delivers high-resolution data capture for your easy analysis. (493KB PDF) Read the full text.
  • Evaluating Valve/Actuator Performance

    When a control loop is placed in automatic control, it is easy to detect if a valve or actuator is not responding correctly to the control system. As discussed in Chapter 3 of Advanced Control Foundation – Tools, Techniques and Application, this can be done by observing the response of the controlled parameter to control … Continue reading » Read the full text.
  • Press Release: Emerson’s wireless technology helps improve operational efficiency of biomass power plant in Italy

    Smart Wireless transmitters provide increased visibility into the process, support predictive maintenance and provide tank overspill protection AUSTIN, TEXAS (March 5, 2013) – Emerson Process Management’s Smart Wireless technology is enabling Enomondo S.r.l. to improve visibility into the process at its biomass power plant in Faenza, Italy. Enomondo – a partnership between Caviro Distillerie and [...] Read the full text…
  • Sharing Process Control Expertise with Next-Gen Automation Professionals

    One of the very active U.S. universities in the field of engineering and automation is Oklahoma State University. Their OSU Automation Society was founded several years ago and its purpose is to spread awareness and promote automation and control systems...
  • Usability and Other Improvements in DeltaV Version 12

    I wanted to highlight a series of posts from Emerson’s Bruce Greenwald on his Process Control Musings blog. He highlights some additions to the DeltaV version 12 release—DeltaV Version 12 Fun Facts and Features: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 In Part 1,...
  • Addressing Incorrect Tuning

    A Loop tuning has a significant impact on control loop utilization and performance. Controller tuning parameters can be easily changed over a wide range to adjust loop operation for various process requirements. However, some expertise in tuning is required even when advanced control tools are used, and there is a chance that the behavior of … Continue reading » Read the full text.
  • Press Release: Emerson wins $33 million contract to upgrade automation on Statoil platform in Norwegian North Sea

    New safety and automation systems using Emerson’s new electronic marshalling with CHARMs technology will help improve oil recovery from Visund platform AUSTIN, TEXAS (February 27, 2013) – Statoil has awarded Emerson Process Management, a business of Emerson (NYSE: EMR), a $33 million contract to upgrade safety and automation systems on the Visund oil platform in [...] Read the full text.
  • Identifying Transmitter Problems

    One of the most obvious reasons for poor control utilization is a broken or unreliable transmitter or sensor. As addressed in Chapter 3 of Advanced Control Foundation – Tools, Techniques, and Applications, if the control system is designed to be consistent with the international function block standard, IEC 61804, the status attribute is always communicated … Continue reading » Read the full text.
  • DeltaV Version 12 Fun Facts and Features – Part 4

    We’ve given a helping hand to Books On Line in Version 12. Never fear, you’ll still be able to launch BOL right from the task bar in DeltaV Explorer, just like you always have. The first change you’ll notice is when you right click on something like a function block. Prior to v12, you’d see a menu like this one with one of the choices being What’s this? In v12, we’ve replace the…
  • Improving Control Utilization

    When the utilization of a control loop is found to be low during normal plant operation, the measurement or control problems that prevent the control loop from functioning in its normal (designed) mode of operation should be further explored. In Chapter 3 of Advanced Control Foundation – Tools, Techniques, and Applications we outline the steps … Continue reading » Read the full text.
  • DeltaV Version 12 Fun Facts and Features – Part 3

    My buddy Klaus Erni, the DeltaV Hardware Product Marketing Manager, has a couple of smaller, but pretty neat projects associated with the V12 release of DeltaV. The first is a fiber optic connection option for our Wireless IO Card (WIOC) – the Fiber Optic IOP. With this little gizmo plugged into the WIOC carrier, you’re no longer constrained to the 100m limit of copper CAT5 and can really extend the…
  • Control Utilization

    It can be shocking to examine control utilization in a plant where performance tools have not been installed and/or not used. For example, in the mid-1980s a control survey was conducted at a major pulp and paper plant where the control system had recently been updated to the latest distributed control system. At that time … Continue reading » Read the full text.
  • DeltaV Version 12 Fun Facts and Features – Part 2

    One of our projects in Version 12 is our Licensing Revamp. We’ve made counting IO licenses and managing them much easier. The first thing we’ve done is gotten consistent in counting Device Signal Tags (DST’s) across all our supported bus technologies. In previous versions of DeltaV, a single Foundation Fieldbus device counted as a single DST; it didn’t matter how many signals came in on that device,…
  • Evaluating Control Performance

    A plant operator is usually responsible for managing one or more process areas, with (potentially) hundreds of control loops and process measurements in each area. The operator’s job is made easier if the control loops in these process areas are in automatic mode and can compensate automatically for disturbances and maintain the operating conditions the … Continue reading » Read the full text.
  • Getting the Converted PID Values Right

    I received an interesting story from Emerson’s James Beall about a process manufacturer with a process filled with many fermentors. They were being converted over from Provox control systems to DeltaV systems. pH control was a key part of the plant’s...
  • DeltaV Version 12 Fun Facts and Features – Part 1

    One of my New Year’s resolutions (and performance review goals) was to start blogging more frequently, so I thought I’d put together a series of posts about some of the new and enhanced features in the upcoming release of DeltaV, Version 12. SIS Electronic Marshalling, Virtualization, and Batch Analytics are three big features, but I thought I'd start by covering some of the smaller, but important updates. …
  • Assessment of Control Performance

    To achieve the maximum benefit, the performance monitoring tools that are installed in control systems to evaluate plant control performance should contain features to support both analysis and diagnostics. Process Analysis is the examination of a process, its elements, and their relationships. Process Diagnostics is the investigation of the cause or nature of a process … Continue reading » Read the full text.
  • New DeltaV v11 and v12.3 Supported Computers Whitepaper

    This whitepaper lists the DeltaV workstations that are supported for v11 and v12.3 and how to obtain Windows 7 Professional and Server 2008 Standard O/S software and Windows licenses to upgrade existing workstations. (278KB PDF) Read the full text.