Vance VanDoren
Articles
System Integrator Demographics
The automation system integration business accounts for nearly $20 billion worldwide in engineering services and related product revenues, according to the Control System Integrators Association (CSIA). Exactly what that figure represents depends in large part on the definition of "system integrator.
Bucking Manufacturing Employment Trends
Over the past two decades, job insecurity has become the norm in the manufacturing industry worldwide. Data from the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that U.S. manufacturing employment dropped, on average, by 1.08% annually between 1986 and 2003. And though the U.S. job market posted a 2,000-person net gain in six major engineering-and-computer job classifications ...
Frequency Domain Analysis Explained
Predicting the future behavior of a process is key to the analysis of feedback control systems. Knowing how the controlled process will react to the controller's efforts allows the controller to choose the course of action required to drive the process variable towards the setpoint. Linear processes are particularly predictable since a combination of two control efforts applied simultaneousl...
System integrator alternatives
A system integrator can specify, procure, and install the components of an automation system and make them work together with a client's production equipment. But independent integrators aren't the only available source of system integration services. Automation vendors have traditionally offered the engineering services required to integrate their own products into a client's plant.
Automation Stars in a Supporting Role
Working against a looming deadline, the production company for the movie "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" was informed that the special-effects coordinator needed a new control solution—fast. Commander Productions' Dan Sudick wanted to make sure that the hydraulic motion controllers that powered the positioning gimbal underneath his main prop—a replica of the H.
Understanding Process Order
Mathematically speaking, the order of a continuous process equals the number of differentiation operators required to construct its governing equation. In layman's terms, that describes how dramatically the process variable can change when a control effort is applied to the process. Higher order processes demonstrate more complicated behavior and are commensurately harder to control.
Analog, discrete, digital: deciphered
Unlike the virtual world within a computer, the real world is "analog." Real-world variables can change at any time, not just at the end of a scan cycle or sampling interval. Variables measured by a computer are "discrete." They remain constant until the next sampling interval, even if real-world values change.
Good Integrator Help Isn’t Hard to Find
Hiring the right system integrator for an automation project can greatly improve the chances of completing the job on time and under budget. And once that first project has been successfully concluded, re-hiring the same integrator for the next job is an easy decision. Unfortunately, selecting an integrator is not so simple the first time out.
In-House/OutsourceDebate
Although system integrators are the experts when it comes to designing and implementing factory automation systems, not all automation projects require outside assistance. Some projects can be executed just as well or better by the plant's in-house engineers. On the other hand, a plant manager with no in-house engineering staff to draw upon is pretty much obliged to outsource the automation work.
Why System Integrators Consolidate
Merger mania that swept the industrial automation industry in the 1980s and 1990s made some of the largest product suppliers even larger—and eliminated others. A similar trend has begun among suppliers of contract engineering services. More integrators are departing from the tradition of being relatively small, independent companies, offering specialized services to a few targeted industr...
Test Your Control System with Simulation
Computer-based simulations abound in the 21st century. The most familiar examples are just for fun—video games, animated toys, amusement park rides, and the like. But simulations can serve a serious purpose in the manufacturing world as well. The functions of a proposed control system can be tested with a simulated plant, allowing mistakes to be identified in a cost-free virtual world.
System Integrators Broaden Their Horizons
In a recent open-ended survey, system integrators listed in the Control Engineering Automation Integrator Guide (www.controleng.com/integrators) were asked, "What functionality have your clients been asking to get from their automation systems that they didn't typically ask for five years ago?" The overwhelming majority of respondents cited information gathering as the emerging trend in aut...
Deadtime hampers process control
Deadtime is the interval between the application of a control effort and its first discernible effect on the process variable. Deadtime is most common in processes that involve a transport delay between the actuators and the sensors, such as water flowing through a bathroom's plumbing from the hot water valve to the showerhead.
Cross-Directional Control Aids Paper Making
Paper-making is a precision operation. Weight, moisture, and thickness of paper must be uniform from the start to the end of a roll and across the width of the sheet. A variety of control techniques have been developed to maintain the quality of the paper not only in the direction the sheet is moving but in the cross-direction as well.
Analyzing Control Loop Behavior in the Frequency Domain
The frequency domain is a mathematical construct that simplifies the analysis of a control system's performance. It can be used to show how a process operating under the influence of a feedback controller will react to inputs from the controller or a change in the behavior of the process. Frequency domain analysis rests on two fundamental principles.
Gain scheduling handles nonlinear processes
A majority of feedback control techniques, including the venerable PID algorithm, relies on the principle of linearity that guarantees a Y % change in the process variable following an X % change in the control effort. The ratio or gain between X and Y will be fixed, whether the process is currently running at maximum capacity, minimum capacity, or somewhere in between.
Who’s Who in Automation System Integration
Many different companies contribute to a typical system integration project. The following list divides them into several broad categories and describes the general functions of each. These are by no means hard and fast job descriptions.