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 ...

Only through proper troubleshooting and then solving the underlying problems can control loop performance be improved. Process design certainly plays a role in control loop performance, but experience ...

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 ...

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 ...

Power supplies use control-loop circuits to produce constant voltage or current. The transfer function—gain and phase as a function of frequency—provides valuable information about a control loop’s ...

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 ...

Switching power supplies rely on feedback control loops to ensure that the required voltage and current are maintained under varying load conditions. Design of the feedback control loop influences ...

For the PDF version of this article, click here. Switching power supplies rely on feedback control loops to ensure the supply maintains the required voltage and current with varying load conditions.

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 ...

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 ...