Control and Instrumentation articles from April 1997

Control and Instrumentation archives from April 1997

Patent bending. (infringement in process control industry)
April 1, 1997... News that a small British company is to be hauled through the courts for an alleged patent infringement (C&I March, News) has sent alarm bells ringing throughout the process control industry - and much farther afield. It is not surprising. The...

CAE - it pays. (computer-aided engineering)
April 1, 1997... Computer Aided Engineering means better corporate integration, business process improvements and, ultimately, increased productivity Asked what is meant by Computer Aided Engineering (CAE), 10 engineers will probably give 10 different answers....

Right first time! (implementation of new system)
April 1, 1997... Getting systems 'right first time' when working on any project is a matter of attending to structured, detailed and communicative methodologies Experience tells me that many organisations expect to suffer 'teething problems' or worse when a...

Why OPC for systems? (object linking and embedding for process control)
April 1, 1997... OLE for Process Control - will it happen? If so, what will be the likely impact on engineering projects and systems? February saw the launch of the OPC-Europe Council - a subsidiary of the non-profit making OPC Foundation 'formed to address the...

Potent - but price. (VXI platform)
April 1, 1997... When the IEEE adopted VXI in 1993, it faced two obstacles to acceptance. VXI was perceived as difficult to use and also expensive You'd have expected the VXI virtual instrument architecture to lower the cost of instrumentation compared to...

World wide web, what? (intranets)
April 1, 1997... Six months ago, nobody had heard of intranets; today, we're apparently crying out for them So what is an intranet? Definitions vary, but we'll call it 'an internal Internet'. Here's the difference. The Internet is the global, open, public...

Non-invasive level sensors. (measurement devices)(includes directory of measuring equipment companies)
April 1, 1997... New non-invasive level measurement techniques offer opportunities for process efficiency gains In the drive to maximise process efficiency, the industry continues to demand ever lower costs of installation and ownership, and ever more...

Integrating SAP with DCS systems. (distributed control system)
April 1, 1997... Exchanging DCS information with an SAP system involves integrating business systems The SAP client/server based R/3 system has generated much interest in the chemical manufacturing industry. More than 3,000 companies in 36 countries use SAP...

Infrared: faster, smaller, cheaper. (infrared thermometry)
April 1, 1997... Infrared thermometry has come of age, with smarter, cheaper and more user-friendly hardware Judging by the number of manufacturers prepared to commit a significant slice of their profits to R&D, non-contact thermometry is a dynamic technology....

Cableless SCADA communications.
April 1, 1997... Radio telemetry can offer a time and money saving solution to effective SCADA systems As any systems design engineer knows, the cost of installing process signal cables in SCADA systems can amount to a significant share of the overall project...

TESPAR helps you see in the dark. (time encoded signal processing and recognition)
April 1, 1997... and it could be 'the key to commercial DSP' It is almost 40 years since the first seeds were sewn which would later bear fruit with the development of TESPAR - Time Encoded Signal Processing And Recognition. Now the 'new' digital language for...

Measuring flow in part-filled pipes.
April 1, 1997... The drive towards closer monitoring of discharges, and the emergence of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Consent to Discharge regulations, have created a new demand for flow measurement in pipes which do not run full By their nature,...

Applying scheduling to processes.
April 1, 1997... Most MRP systems cannot handle production scheduling It is now recognised that the majority of MRP systems cannot address the increasingly important issue of production scheduling. Usually, they produce an 'infinite capacity' plan - one which...

Getting a measure of plant loop success? (regulatory controls and process measurement)
April 1, 1997... Regulatory controls and process measurements, although maybe unglamorous, are fundamental for large-scale controls and real-time optimisers. Yet this is rarely a strong point among practicing advanced control project engineers Today,...

Tricky tuning innovative approaches. (process control systems)
April 1, 1997... Control system problems are the stuff of the Advanced Control Club at Westminster - which here applies a range of methods to deliver pragmatic solutions Today's tough commercial conditions are forcing all of us to consider new ways of making...

Finding your way in the EMC jungle. (electromagnetic control)
April 1, 1997... EMC legislation is just the start to getting the right benefits from drives Today's drives are becoming increasingly more versatile and sophisticated. However, as drives switch large currents at high speeds, they are always likely to be...

Drives and controllers. (Drives and Controls Shows)
April 1, 1997... Drives and Controls was as much about PLCs, SCADA and integration as drives We'd expected some launches at last month's Drives and Controls Show in Telford. We weren't disappointed; if anything perhaps surprised at the numbers and scale....

Gas turbine controls: it's all about highest speed.
April 1, 1997... Controlling modern, low emission gas turbines can be handled by standard open control systems Gas turbines (GTs) almost always require automatic control systems, whatever their size and application. When starting, the unit auxiliaries, such as...