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What is data backfilling?
Manufacturing facilities across the process industries are increasing their adoption of plant-wide monitoring and diagnostic solutions. Essentially, they’re seeking to capitalize on existing investments in data as a means of improving production efficiency and throughput. One type of diagnostic solution in particular that is seeing a significant uptick in adoption is Control Loop Performance Monitoring (CLPM) technology.
Read MoreThe “D” in PID Stands for: Do Not Use (Sometimes)!
The Derivative Term is not only the last letter in PID (i.e. Proportional-Integral-Derivative) it’s also the most maligned of the three. With its big kick, the Proportional Term provides an immediate correction for changes in control and it is clearly the star of the PID controller. So too, the Integral Term is credited with its tenacious correction of Offset and for steadily pushing a loop back to Set Point. And then there’s Door #3: The lowly Derivative Term. Derivative works to counteract the rate of change of the process variable.
Read MoreWhat should you consider when tuning PID controllers?
Knowing how to tune a PID loop while satisfying its unique control objective is critical. Fortunately there is a group of descriptive statistics that characterizes a controller’s core performance attributes and that helps you to get the tunings right each time. Below are four (4) KPIs that process control experts frequently use when determining if their new PID tuning parameters are right for the job.
Read MoreWhat should you expect from Process Control training?
Searching for meaningful Industrial Professional Development courses can be frustrating. It’s generally understood that Process Control is an important aspect of a practitioner’s job responsibilities.
Read MoreFewer Metrics Leads to Better Results
Big Data and IIoT have captured the automation industry’s imagination. A key take-away from all that’s been written is that plant data holds the key to making many production processes safer, more efficient, and more profitable. While there’s growing evidence that Big Data and IIoT are delivering meaningful value, some scientists have begun to wonder if there is a limit to the amount of information that is actually helpful. They’ve posed the question: At what point does information become detrimental to the people who rely on it?
Read MoreRockwell PID Execution Time: the Difference Between Continuous and Periodic Tasks
Have you ever seen an Integral Term on a PID controller that seems an order of magnitude larger or smaller than what should be used? Often, the issue stems from the method in which logic is executed on the Process Automation Controller (PAC).
Read MoreWhat is Process Gain? Why is Process Gain important when tuning Processes?
Professionals who tune PID controllers using manual methods tend to agree that understanding the Process Gain of their system is of the up-most importance. Among industry practitioners the Process Gain is often referred to as the “how far” or even the “sensitivity” variable and yet these descriptions can be rather vague to beginners.
Read MoreWhat Attributes Should You Look for in a Workshop Instructor?
Walking out of a classroom with the impression that you didn’t learn as much as you should have is never a good feeling. After an experience like that it can sometimes be hard to put your finger on what exactly went wrong:
Read MoreWhat is a Distributed Control System?
In a recent blog post we paid tribute to Dick Morley and his pivotal contribution to the process automation industry: the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). Since the PLC and Distributed Control System (DCS) are both instrumental in controlling complex production processes, people occasionally use the two terms interchangeably. While the two are related, their applications are notably different.
Read MoreThe Power of the Hear-See-Do Learning Method
There is an old proverb that goes: “If you test a fish on how well it climbs a tree, it will think it’s a failure.” While this proverb is often used in relation to traditional K-12 education, it stands true in just about any educational scenario…
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