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 ...

Every plant in the process industry most likely has several control loops that do not perform well. Although there are many factors that may negatively affect control loop performance, a few of these ...

On my first project as a combustion control engineer, I was responsible for loop checks and for watching the experts tune the system controls. The first loop I tried to tune solo was the drum level ...

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 ...

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 ...

For injection molding — as well as just about every plastic process — process cooling is very important for cycle time and part quality. Cooling sometimes seems like a last-horizon type of variable ...