Problems encountered in level controls October 2002, Michael Brown Control Engineering, System Integration & Control Systems Design This month's article deals with a few of the more difficult problems encountered in level controls. Before going into them it would be appropriate to summarise a few important points on integrating processes ...
Read more...A depressing day in a plant with no miracles August 2002, Michael Brown Control Engineering, System Integration & Control Systems Design I was recently asked to optimise some loops in a petrochemical plant. Most of the time when doing this sort of work, improvements are the order of the day, and I normally go home at the end of the day ...
Read more...The only magic: understanding what you are doing June 2002, Michael Brown Control Engineering, System Integration & Control Systems Design Optimisation of regulatory control systems is not easy. It is also time consuming and hard work. There are generally no short cuts. Many people often do not realise this, and are always seeking for a ...
Read more...Control problem in an ammonium nitrate prilling plant April 2002, Michael Brown Control Engineering, System Integration & Control Systems Design In this issue Michael Brown has forwarded an interesting article submitted by Melvin Jones who graduated from the University of Pretoria as a chemical engineer. He has a keen interest in process control ...
Read more...Problems in a plant with no positioners on valves February 2002, Michael Brown Control Engineering, System Integration & Control Systems Design During the two-day practical part of a course held recently in a large South African chemical plant, it was found that none of the valves had positioners on them. This is very unusual these days.
The ...
Read more...Are there problems in the control loops? December 2001, Michael Brown Control Engineering, System Integration & Control Systems Design Although this is appearing in the middle of the current series of loop signatures on digital controllers, I felt that it would be nice to have a change and write another article on some of the more interesting ...
Read more...Digital controllers: Part 4 - the I term November 2001, Michael Brown Control Engineering, System Integration & Control Systems Design In the previous article in this series, it was shown that the main problem with the P only controller is the fact that it is not capable of eliminating offset between setpoint and process variable (PV) ...
Read more...The case of the mysterious cycle on a paper machine July 2001, System Integration & Control Systems Design I, personally, find the control of paper machines extremely interesting. As in many other plants, we generally find the vast majority of the regulatory controls on the paper machines are working extremely ...
Read more...Regulatory controls in most plants do not work properly May 2001, System Integration & Control Systems Design As mentioned many times in previous articles, most people's perceptions are that the basic regulatory controls are operating reasonably well in their plants. Our experience has proved time and time again ...
Read more...Do mines have particularly bad control problems? April 2001, Michael Brown Control Engineering, System Integration & Control Systems Design In the far distant past when I first started my own business we specialised in automating plants mainly on gold and platinum mines. Even inexperienced as I was in those days, I soon realised that the ...
Read more...Introduction to 'loop problem signatures' series September 2000, Michael Brown Control Engineering, System Integration & Control Systems Design In response to the frequent requests for more detailed information on control loop problem solving, I intend publishing some of the information dealt with in our courses in the next series of articles. ...
Read more...Solving problems in a gas mixing system July 2000, System Integration & Control Systems Design During a recent control course presented in a South African continuous process plant, part of the practical work was spent in optimising a hydrogen/nitrogen gas mixing system
A schematic of the mixing ...
Read more...Control: perceptions versus reality May 2000, System Integration & Control Systems Design When starting in-plant control courses I always ask the class members to give me their individual estimates as to how many of their loops they believe to be operating satisfactorily in automatic. In a ...
