Learning the basics can ease loop tuning frustration and ensure stability. During plant operations, it seems that tuning control loops is an ongoing task, which can be a continual frustration to ...

Just over a decade ago, an article titled, "Advanced Control Strategies Move into the Field" (Control, October 2008), highlighted three evolving trends in the process control world that would "make ...

In 2012, Automation World published an article looking at the decision factors faced when choosing electric or pneumatic actuators. More than a decade later, manufacturing engineers and OEMs still ...

The controller contains the “control algorithm,” or control logic equation. The most common control algorithm is called PID, which stands for Proportional (P)-Integral (I)-Derivative (D). When the ...

Due to their versatility, ease of design, and low cost, flyback converters have become one of the most widely used topologies in power electronics. Its structure derives from one of the three basic ...

The importance of motor trajectory profiles and how they’re used in brushless DC (BLDC) motor control to minimize vibration and smooth out other performance issues. Why the PID loop is the most widely ...

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 ...

How current-control loops in BLDC motors improve performance and efficiency while protecting against overcurrent conditions. The differences between current-control loops, field-oriented control (FOC) ...

Good building mechanical design requires a firm grasp of the mechanical engineering fundamentals (thermodynamics, psychrometrics, the fan laws, etc.). The same can be said about the BAS design needed ...