Feb
20
Work on the WirelessHART specification began over seven years ago. Since that time the WirelessHART specification has been published by the HART Communications Foundation. Also, in 2010 WirelessHART was approved by IEC as an international standard, IEC 62591Ed. 1.0. From the very beginning, the WirelessHART design included the features required for both monitoring and control applications. …
Feb
13
In January I posted a series of four (4) blogs that addressed the implement of an on-line compressor efficiency calculation. The example for this series was a compressor for a refrigeration system that used R134a refrigerant. If you have a similar compressor application in your plant then the information provided in these blogs may act …
Feb
06
The week of January 8th, 2012 I traveled to our office in Costa Rica to teach the 9025 class. This class was created last year by Emerson’s education department to provide training on the basics of process control and instrumentation. The lecture material and student workshops included in the class are based on the book …
Jan
02
In June, 2100 the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) distributed a new project proposal 65E/199/NP, Devices and integration in enterprise systems; Field Device Integration (FDI) – Part 1 to 7. Voting on this proposal was completed in October, 2011 and the new project was approved. Within IEC the SC65E WG7 committee will address converting the draft FDI …
Oct
31
In early September, Mark Nixon and I were notified by ISA that we were recipients of the “Raymond D. Molloy Award” presented by the ISA Publications Department. Our book, Control Loop Foundation—Batch and Continuous Processes, sold the most units of any new book published by ISA in 2010. We received this award in the Mardi …
Oct
10
ISA Automation Week will be held this year on 17-20th October 2011 at the Arthur R. Outlaw Convention Center, Mobile, AL. Many of the ISA committees that work on the creation of standards for the process industry will be meeting in conjunction with ISA Automation Week. To avoid any schedule conflict the technical sessions, many …
Jun
17
Every time I see associates retire, I have mixed emotions. I am happy to see them enjoy more R&R, but I am sad to see their expertise go. Very few users have had the time or support to communicate what they have learned the hard way by field experience. When they go out the door, …
Jan
20
We are the past, present, and future of ISA. Our participation and leadership defines ISA and in so doing our profession. We have been fortunate to have key members step up to be leaders at the local section, division, and national level. We have had an extraordinary past leader (Vernon Trevathan) and new leader (Nick …
Dec
13
As noted in a previous post, when work on Foundation Fieldbus specification was completed in 1994, there were very few fieldbus products on the market and even fewer control systems that supported these devices. The Fieldbus Foundation function block team discussed the need to communicate the advantages of fieldbus to inform the industry of this …
Nov
29
A web site accompanies the book Control Loop Foundation – Batch and Continuous Processes. Using this web site it is possible to perform the exercises for the 19 workshops and application examples contained in the book. Also, a video contained under the Solutions tab for each exercise walks you through and explains the exercise. One …
