Archive for category Batch Control
Five Key Features Required for a Perfect Fit Distributed Control System
Posted by danstips in Batch Control, Communications, Control, Honeywell, Process Automation Controllers, Safety Control on October 26, 2015
If you work in the industrial sector, you understand the never-ending push to increase uptime and improve reliability at your plant. Today’s processes require faster and more accurate engineering. Because of this, most companies are looking for ways to boost operational effectiveness and increase maintenance efficiency at their plants.
A distributed control system (DCS) is a control system where control elements are distributed throughout the system, as opposed to using a single controller at a central location. But how do you choose the right DCS? And how do you decide what functions are critical to your process?
Honeywell recently released a white paper that discusses five key features for a perfect fit DCS if you’re thinking about implementing one at your plant.
How to pick a setpoint profile program on a Honeywell UDC3500 controller
Posted by danstips in Batch Control, Configuration, Control, Honeywell, Loop Controllers on September 11, 2014
You’ve heard this phrase before: “It’s simple. But nobody said it would be easy.”
And this is exactly one of those cases.
The Honeywell UDC3500 digital controller can support up to four setpoint programs, the ramp/soak profiles used in batch control operations. But after configuring all four profiles, I was stuck on how to select the one I wanted the controller to use.
There’s no “Program Select” button on the keypad. So I was mystified on how I was going to select my setpoint profile program #3.
Tested and proven: Honeywell PIE software reads and writes do not affect a UDC controller’s output
Posted by danstips in Batch Control, Communications, Configuration, Ethernet, Honeywell, Installation, Loop Controllers, Service, Software on June 28, 2012
A customer has several UDC 3200 loop controllers with newly added Ethernet cards. He needed to configure each of the controllers’ IP addresses using Honeywell Process Instrument Explorer (PIE) software. Because the controllers are working in a 24×7 continuous process, he was concerned about how making those changes would affect each controller’s performance.
So he asked me: Would a PIE action of uploading config files from or downloading them back to a controller affect the controller’s performance?
In the past, I’d only ever changed a controller’s IP address when it was on my workbench, not when it was actively controlling a process. So I’d never paid attention to whether PIE communications would affect the controller’s output or its PID action. Since I couldn’t answer the question, I told the customer I’d run a test to find out for sure.
How can I use a controller to detect thermocouple drift?
Posted by danstips in Batch Control, Burner Control, Combustion, Honeywell, Loop Controllers, Process Automation Controllers, Temperature, Thermocouples on May 17, 2012
If you use thermocouples in high-temperature applications, you’re aware of the issues thermocouple drift can cause. Thermocouples drift. It’s not a question of IF, it’s a question of WHEN. And thermocouple drift costs processors time and money in processing errors, waste, downtime, and lost production.
Thermocouple drift occurs due to metallurgical changes of the metal alloy elements over the extended use of the sensor. Thermocouples can drift by as much as several degrees per year.
-
You are currently browsing the archives for the Batch Control category.
Lesman Tech Tips 