What have you done for me lately? That question directly influences the behavior of most everyone within a production facility. Face it, we operate in a meritocracy that has little
It's generally accepted that tuning a PID controller requires some form of testing. Whether a step, bump, doublet, or pseudo random binary sequence, the test forces a change to the
If you're tired of manual tuning and you want more than the auto-tune function can muster, then you're in luck. There are a variety of software products that support the
Model-Predictive Control (MPC) is advanced technology that optimizes the control and performance of business-critical production processes. So is Control Loop Performance Monitoring (CLPM) software. But if both help practitioners to
Tuning a PID controller should always start with a clear understanding of both the control objective and the Design Level of Operation (DLO). Unfortunately a subsequent step (the calculation of
The latest report published by the Manufacturing Institute underscores the growing shortage of skilled labor here in the United States. Their 2014 study of skills and training Out of Inventory simply affirms
Bumping a process is a standard requirement when tuning a PID controller - whether you tune manually or with the help of software. And, either way, applying industry best-practices will
Not all approaches to PID controller tuning are equal. Regardless of your approach a key to successfully tuning a controller is modeling the process dynamics accurately.
Non-Steady State (NSS) Modeling is the ability to calculate an accurate process model when the associated data is oscillatory, is noisy, or has extensive Dead-Time. It's a highly valuable capability
Techniques for modelling a process' dynamics and calculating tuning parameters are widely available. These approaches enable practitioners to tune controllers consistently and with reasonable results. At Control Station we know
