Installation in a brownfield chemical plant shows interoperability within ISA100.11a and practicality for instrumentation improvements in long-established operations.
Cockrell Ranch Waterflood oil recovery project uses a wireless SCADA system to gather, assemble, transmit information from the wells to produce detailed production models and maximize output.
Editors note: The article Driving Plant Optimization with Advanced Process Control (in this issue) discusses when and how companies might want to create their own process models and control strategies.
Machine vision sensors are often likened to human eyes: They scan and “see” the world around them, then transmit the data elsewhere for some action to occur.
In most process plants there are one or two operators that seem to drive the process better than others. Those operators consistently create the most output at the highest quality, and can manipulate those complex interactions that make up a process.
An international manufacturer of textile, chemical, and related products for the apparel, industrial, institutional, and commercial markets, Mount Vernon Mills employs some 2,600 people and operates 14 production facilities in the U.S., as well as in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia.
Although not an engineer himself, poet Robert Burns once wrote, “the best-laid plans of mice and men go oft awry.” Automation engineers know a lot can go wrong when designing a machine, programming a computer, or building anything that involves automation equipment, computers, and sensors.
There is increasing attention by control system vendors to enhance cyber security and operate better in corporate IT environments. This attention is good because cyber threats are not decreasing and, at the same time, corporate IT environments are becoming more protected.
Constant diagnostic evaluation of electric motor-operated valves (MOVs) has become an important tool for asset management, predictive maintenance programs, troubleshooting, and scheduled periodic maintenance.
A manufacturer recently lost more than $100,000 in downtime-related costs after an unknown individual made a timing change in an automated grease system.
Practitioners of control engineering generally like things spelled out when they can get it, and those revising the ISA batch control standard believe their three-year revision clarifies quite a bit. And, they say, the standard continues to become more usable for applications outside of batch control.
Indiana Veneers has seen good times come and go in its 117 years in business, but the current global recession has given it new challenges to face and adapt to. The Indianapolis-based company specializes in hardwood veneers exported to 42 countries for use in furniture and paneling.