A Stable Process is a Profitable Process

Engineers in the Basic Materials market understand the value of Set Point tracking as a means of controlling business-critical production processes. Simply put – better Set Point tracking results in improved disturbance rejection and more consistent product quality. That makes for safer and more profitable production, and Control Station’s LOOP-PRO is making that possible.

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Automating Control and Reducing the Cost of Manual Intervention

The best time to visit the local zoo is early in the morning around feeding time. That’s when the animals are out and about, and it’s when they showcase their wild side. Although fun to experience while on vacation, this type of wild behavior is anything but acceptable in a manufacturing facility. Wild is unstable and unsafe. It’s unprofitable.

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Watering Down Production for Increased Profits

Tightening control around Set Point will improve the performance and profitability of most every production process. This is especially true of drying processes applied by ethanol manufacturers to control moisture content. With reduced variability, ethanol producers are capable of improving quality and reducing energy consumption.

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Are Your Tunings Refined?

ConocoPhillips, a recognized leader in the petrochemicals industry, faced a dilemma at their Bayway Refinery. Oscillation in a critical steam flow loop persisted in spite of relentless efforts to stabilize it. The loop was vital to one of the refinery’s distillation columns and its inefficiency was resulting in significant energy loss. Although refinery staff used multiple software tools to assist with diagnosis and optimization, the loop’s oscillatory behavior prevented those tools from producing an accurate model of the process and thwarted tuning.

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Maximizing Production and Profits Through Improved Process Control

Magnesium Elektron’s (MEI) profits were being heavily impacted by an inability to control a critical production process. Excessive oscillation in the Chiller at their Flemington, New Jersey production site had cost MEI hundreds of thousands of dollars each month. In spite of best efforts to stabilize process temperature within acceptable tolerances, the company’s operations staff were unable to establish the necessary level of control.

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Improving Control Can Be So Sweet!

Chocolate is a nearly $100 Billion global business. As may be expected the process of transforming raw cacao beans into its many tasty confectionery forms is complex. In particular, the tempering process takes chocolate through a precisely controlled temperature curve that involves the raising followed by the lowering of the product’s
temperature.

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FEBRUARY 2009 – BATCH CONTROL GETS EASIER

Loop tuning package doesn’t demand steady-state operation. The nonlinear dynamics of most exothermic and endothermic batch reactions require expert attention to assure quality production. For instance, introducing reactants often results…

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