Home About us Contact us Training Optimisation Services Protuner Educational PDFs Loop Signatures Case Histories
Michael Brown Control Engineering CC
Practical Process Control Training & Loop Optimisation
Michael Brown's Basic Troubleshooting and Loop Tuning
Michael Brown Control Engineering now offers a new and very practical approach to the basics of regulatory control loop optimisation. This is a course consisting of 31 chapters and based on articles on the subject Michael Brown has written over the past few years. The course covers some of the fundamentals of the subject, and careful study of the various chapters will allow you to gain a really good understanding of some of the really practical principles of optimising simple loops.
The course is offered in the form of PDF's which can be purchased from Michael Brown Control Engineering. For prices and ordering information, please contact the company at michael.brown@mweb.co.za .
DESCRIPTION OF CONTENTS
This Course offers a new and very straight forward and easily understandable approach to the basics of practical regulatory control. This differs considerably from the very mathematical and idealistic standpoint from which control is normally taught by most academic institutions.
My approach is based on work performed over 20 years in literally hundreds of plants in many countries around the world, where we have found that in general at least 85% of all regulatory control loops operate extremely inefficiently in automatic. Over 50% of most loops have problems in them. (Usually people in the plants are completely unaware of these problems). After performing optimisation in these plants, control performance of virtually every loop worked on is vastly improved. Very often literally hundreds of times better.
To be able to optimise loops successfully, it is essential that the person doing the work understands the true practicalities behind control. Apart from a good basic knowledge and understanding of the process itself, and of the control requirements, he or she must be able to analyse each loop to ascertain the type of process dynamics, to determine if any problems exist in the loop, and then finally to apply the most appropriate type of tuning to achieve optimum performance for that particular loop.
Our experience to date is that very few people have any real understanding of the true practicalities of control, as they have never been taught this, and have had to "feel their way", which often results in incorrect concepts, and lack of ability to optimise loops to operate efficiently.
The contents of this Course address the correct approach, and deals with all the elements in the loop, including the process.
The following subjects are covered:
Once this Course has been properly studied, it will be possible for the student to tackle optimisation with much more understanding and confidence.
Examples of articles in this Series
For prices and ordering information, please contact the company at michael.brown@mweb.co.za
CASE HISTORIES
Description of Contents
Over 100 articles containing descriptions of very interesting problems and
solutions encountered by Michael Brown during his years of work in many
plants in various countries around the world. There are also some articles
discussing some of the basics of optimisation, and the need for it in plants
worldwide. One particular article shows you how to calculate how well your
controls are operating in your own plant.
Examples of articles in this Series
For prices and ordering information, please contact the company at michael.brown@mweb.co.za
ADVANCED OPTIMISATION TECHNIQUES
Description of Contents
This is a continuation of the optimisation techniques described in my previous course "Basic Troubleshooting and Loop Tuning", which discussed analysing regulatory control loops, and the basics of tuning processes with simple dynamics. Such processes are probably encountered in plants in about 60 - 70% of most cases. However there are many more types of dynamics, many of them being quite complicated. It is vital for successful optimisation that one can identify all the dynamic types that occur in the process, and
learn how to effectively tune the controller in the best possible way.
There are also other problems that can occur in processes where feedback control cannot operate effectively, as in the case of interactive processes, and where slow processes are upset by external load changes. Feedforward techniques can be very powerful to remedy situations like this.
This new course covers all these points. Another important feature in the work is that the basics of the theory behind practical control techniques are discussed in more detail than was given in the first course. The result is that the student will gain a much better understanding of the practice, and as a result will get much more confidence in understanding how, and why, things work as they do.
Feedback from people who have worked through this material indicate that they have found the teachings incredibly useful and powerful. Many people have come back to me and told me how they have managed to get controls to work successfully in automatic, that were always previously in manual. I personally believe that the knowledge contained herein, has given me the confidence I have, to be able to identify and solve most problems that I encounter in my professional life.
Examples of articles in this Course
For prices and ordering information, please contact the company at michael.brown@mweb.co.za
Educational Series of PDF's presented by Michael Brown
"The True Magic Is To Really Understand What You Are Doing"
ECSA CPD VALIDATED TRAINING COURSES (PARTS 1 & 2) – SAIMC