Only through proper troubleshooting and then solving the underlying problems can control loop performance be improved. Process design certainly plays a role in control loop performance, but experience ...

What is a control system? A control system is a set of mechanical or electronic devices that regulates other devices or systems by way of control loops. Typically, control systems are computerized.

Control valve selection plays a crucial role in optimizing control loop performance, and engineers must consider factors beyond just cost, leakage class and pressure drop. As explored in a Control ...

Power supplies use control-loop circuits to produce constant voltage or current. The transfer function—gain and phase as a function of frequency—provides valuable information about a control loop’s ...

Servo systems typically use a combination of three types of control loops: current, velocity, and position. The velocity control loop serves two purposes—it enables the system to respond to changing ...

Steve Sandler explains what every engineer should know about ‘non-invasive’ stability assessments. The non-invasive stability assessment is a method that uses an output impedance measurement to ...

Power plants–especially coal-fired boilers–pose a set of process control problems unparalleled in other industries. Rapid load ramps, continuous unit demand changes, variable fuel quality and process ...

PID (proportional, integral, derivative) control has existed for decades and there are many tools available to help implement PID to tune process control systems, thereby making it generally easy to ...

Plant engineers and technicians are frequently asked to tune the controller when a control loop’s process value has prolonged or significant excursions from the set point. But in many instances, no ...