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, …
Category Archive: Standards
Jan
20
We are ISA
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
Tutorial Series – Foundation Fieldbus
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
Control Loop Foundation – Web Support
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 …
Nov
22
Control Loop Foundation Class
The book Control Loop Foundation originated from an internal Emerson training class that I put together for new engineers. The Education Services training center located in Austin, TX provided a class room for this training class. I found this to be an ideal training environment for teaching the class since each class room in the …
Nov
15
Control Loop Foundation Web Site
This week we completed work on the web site for the book Control Loop Foundation. Anyone can access this web site to view and perform the exercises for workshops and applications define in the book – a total of 19 exercises. Since the web site is constructed using HTML5, it may be accessed using a …
Nov
11
Control Loop Foundation Overview
In a previous blog posting I provided some information about the book Control Loop Foundation co-authored by me and Mark Nixon This ISA publication became available for sale a week before Emerson Exchange 2010. To help promote the book, Mark and I put together an overview of Control Loop Foundation that we presented as a …
Jan
26
SP104 Initiative to Raise Industry Awareness of EDDL
With the introduction of digital field devices, manufactures of control systems and maintenance tools were faced with the challenge of how to access and display information in devices that were produced by different companies. Over the years, a number of approaches have been developed. However, the Electronic Device Description Language (EDDL) is the dominant technology …
Jan
22
Block Structure of Fieldbus Devices
The physical standard and technical report produced by ISA SP50 were used as a starting point for much of the work done by the Fieldbus Foundation. In particular, the Fieldbus Foundation function block specification team adopted some basic concepts such as the definition of mode and status with minor changes from the definitions contained in …
Jan
15
Use of Mode in Process Control
One of the foundation pieces of measurement and control as utilized by the process industry is the concept of mode. The mode of a measurement inputs to a control system may be used to indicate if the associated device is in or out-of-service. For a control or output function in a control system, the plant …
