Cascade Control: Improving Disturbance Rejection Through Advanced PID Control

There’s a common misconception in various corners of the process industries related to advanced
process control (APC). When the topic of APC is raised it’s not uncommon for practitioners to
immediately think of complex fuzzy logic and model predictive solutions. But a broader view of APC also includes advanced applications of the Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controller. Chief among those APC solutions both used in industry and based on the PID is Cascade Control.

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Process Control 101: Put Your Knowledge to the Test

Think You Know Something About Process Control? As a leader in process control solutions,
Control Station knows that effective control depends on sound knowledge and application of proven best-practices. And as common and essential as PID control is to today’s production
facilities, there is a clear knowledge gap. Take our simple quiz – the results might surprise you.

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Where Can I Get Control Station 3.7? What Happened to Control Station v3.7?

While not all things get better with time some things do actually improve as they age. Anyone over 40 might argue with that statement, and they might have every reason to do so from a personal and physical standpoint. Even so, just a casual glance around – whether in an academic or an industrial setting – offers signs of progress nearly everywhere. To be sure there’s been plenty of progress here at Control Station.

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Who Should Use Feed Forward Control? What applications are best for Feed Forward?

It’s not uncommon for process control discussions to focus on use of the PID to improve a loop’s ability to track Set Point. Oftentimes tweaks to controller tuning parameters either seek incremental reduction in Settling Time or strive to limit Overshoot. Indeed, many PID tuning courses position optimization of a control loop’s Set Point Tracking as the ultimate goal. Such a bias overlooks the value of other strategies like Feed Forward Control.

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