Introductory Course Combined Parts 1+2 Course (five days)
23 July, 26– 30July
19 November, 22–26 November
Courses can be held in the client’s plant subject to prior arrangement.
Course fees (exclude VAT)
Courses held in Johannesburg training centre (per person):
Introductory Course (1 day) R2019,00
Combined Parts 1 & 2 Control Loop Optimisation Course (five days)
R11 565,00
Courses held in the client’s plant in South Africa:
In-Plant Introductory Course:
(1 day, price per group of 10) R13 420,00
In-Plant Field Equipment Course (Measurements & Valves):
(1 day, price per group of 10) R13 420,00
In-Plant Course: Part 1 (Troubleshooting & Loop Tuning + two Day Practical)
(five days, price per group of six) R46 710,00
In-Plant Course: Part 2 (Control Techniques For More Difficult Processes)
(two days, price per group of six) R20 892,00
In-Plant Course: Part 1+2 (No Practical)
(five days, price per group of 6) R48 918,00
In-Plant Course: (Practical)
(two days, price per group of six) R18 684,00
PLUS living, travel, and any other directly related expenses at cost + 10% (use of company car at R5,50/km.)
Prices for courses outside South Africa: On application.
Conditions
Payment for courses in our training centre: Required three weeks prior to the course. Payment after this will result in a 5% increase in quoted prices.
Payment for courses in the client’s plant: before or at time of presentation of course.
Original invoices: If e-mailed invoices are not acceptable, then an additional charge will be levied for courier delivery, as normal post is too unreliable.
Accommodation: course participants are responsible for making their own reservations; hotels will be suggested on request.
Cancellations: bookings for all courses cancelled between 21 and 10 days prior to the course are subject to a 50% cancellation fee. Cancellations 10 or less days prior to the course are subject to a 100% cancellation fee. We also reserve the right to cancel any course if an insufficient number of delegates have booked. In such an event, fees that have been paid will be refunded in full. The client is liable for any unrecoverable expenses prepaid by ourselves, or penalties incurred by cancellation of bookings, irrespective of when the client cancelled the booking/s.
Case History 198: Cascade control overcomes valve problems Michael Brown Control Engineering
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
A large petrochemical refinery asked me to perform an audit on several critical base layer control loops. This article deals with a problem found on a valve controlling the flow of fuel to a heat exchanger.
Read more...Loop signature 28: Things to consider when tuning. Michael Brown Control Engineering
Editor's Choice Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
I was giving a course at a remote mine in the middle of the Namibian desert. We were discussing tuning responses, and as I always do on my courses, I mentioned that in my opinion ¼ amplitude damped tuning is not desirable, and is in fact not good.
Read more...Case History 197: Bad reboiler temperature control. Michael Brown Control Engineering
Editor's Choice Flow Measurement & Control
It is very important that reboiler temperature controls operate well in petrochemical refineries, or the product quality can really suffer. I was asked to check such a control in a refinery where they were having problems with one of these controls.
Read more...Case History 196: Unstable condensate level control. Michael Brown Control Engineering
Editor's Choice Level Measurement & Control
The operators in a petrochemical refinery were having great trouble in trying to stabilise the condensate level in a vessel, and this was adversely affecting other loops downstream. Several unsuccessful attempts had been made to retune the controller.
Read more...Loop signature: Tuning part 4 processes Michael Brown Control Engineering
Editor's Choice Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
The purpose of this particular article is to try and give those unfortunate enough to have to use SWAG (scientific wild ass guess) tuning a bit of an idea of how to go about it, and even more importantly some understanding of a couple of basic principles.
Read more...Case History 195: Unstable reboiler steam flow Michael Brown Control Engineering
Editor's Choice
A high-pressure steam flow control in a reboiler on a column in a petrochemical refinery continually cycled when placed in automatic. Several attempts had been made to tune the controller, but these had been unsuccessful.
Read more...Loop signature 25: Tuning part 3 - Results of tuning a particular simple self-regulating process by several different methods. Michael Brown Control Engineering
Editor's Choice
A couple of SWAG methods of tuning were given in the previous Loop Signature article. I have tuned a simple self-regulating process using those methods, and two other tuning methods, one of them being the sophisticated Protuner tuning package, which is the system I employ. The tests were performed on a very accurate and powerful simulation package, and the results are compared below.
Read more...Case history 194: Boiler level control problem. Michael Brown Control Engineering
Editor's Choice Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
A boiler level control in a petrochemical refinery was causing problems, as the level was cycling badly and taking a long time to recover from sudden load changes. In addition, there were frequent high-level alarms.
Read more...Case History 193: The big dipper. Michael Brown Control Engineering
Editor's Choice
This article gives an example of an important flow control system for flare gas in a petrochemical refinery. The control was suffering from serious problems, often cycling severely, and at other times the flow process variable (PV) would suddenly move quite a lot away from the setpoint (SP).
Read more...Loop signature 23: Tuning part 1. Michael Brown Control Engineering
Editor's Choice
This is the first of several articles dealing with the subject of tuning. I have found that many people think that optimisation consists solely of tuning. I would stress once again that tuning is the last thing one should do when optimising regulatory controls.
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