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 ...

Machines and processes are controlled using many strategies, from simple ladder logic to custom algorithms for specialized process control, but proportional-integral-derivative (PID) is the most ...

PID loops are a central component of modulating boiler control systems with applications ranging from basic steam header pressure control to cascading 3-element drum level control. A modern ...

In my previous article on loop tuning, I discussed the importance of field data collection and the importance of a methodical approach to PID tuning. I introduced the concept of the bump test and how ...

It is a common situation in electronics to have a control loop, that is some sort of feedback that drives the input to a system such as a motor or a heater based upon a sensor to measure something ...

Among all power factor correction (PFC) topologies, totem-pole bridgeless PFC provides the best efficiency; therefore, it is widely used in servers and data centers. However, closing the current ...

Fan control is an important aspect of system architecture. Though often left as a secondary activity, its implementation has significant effects. Customer response can be immediate to factors such as ...

Expertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Opinions expressed are those of the author. As an executive in the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, I have seen firsthand ...