The U.S. Patent Office has issued a patent for Control Loop Performance to ExperTune, Inc. ExperTune has invented methods and programs to calculate overall Control Loop Performance based on process, control, and economic measures. This patented technology is a core component of ExperTune’s PlantTriage® Performance Supervision System.
U.S. Patent #6,993,396 was awarded to John Gerry, President and founder of ExperTune, Inc.PlantTriage® gathers data from the control system, performs a series of numerical assessments, then combines them with economic data to provide a dimensionless measure of control loop performance, or “Control Loop Health”.
Using this single number, process plant personnel can prioritize process improvement efforts and maintenance activities.Control Loop Health can be customized at each plant site to emphasize those measures of performance that relate to the business strategy. For example, one site may emphasize a reduction in oscillation and variability, while another may focus on alarm rates, maintaining loops in normal mode, and speed of control response to upsets. These measures become customized Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs.John Gerry, President of ExperTune says “With PlantTriage®, it is our goal to streamline the performance improvement process.
The patented Control Loop Performance metrics give our clients great insight into the performance of the process. Using these KPI’s to maintain focus, our clients have been able to reduce energy costs, improve productionrates, and stabilize process operations.”Within PlantTriage®, Control Loop Health is tracked, trended, and historized at the loop, unit, plant, and site levels. Web-based visualization tools display the information in a colorful, graphical, and intuitive manner. Drill-down capabilities are used to drive analysis to root cause.
Integrated control loop optimization and tuning tools ensure that problems can be solved quickly.Control Loop Performance metrics and KPIs are receiving a great deal of attention in the process industry. Without performance supervision in place, the vast warehouse of data that is available from a modern distributed control system can be overwhelming. Focused, customized KPIs, such as the Control Loop Health metric, help to make sense out of this data, and drive out specific actions to improve process performance.
The patented methods to determine Control Loop Performance provide a way to streamline the data, and provide focus to improvement efforts.According to Mr. Gerry, “With so many different pressures facing the process industries, a customized metric for Control Loop Performance is crucial to achieving process performance results. Our clients have been very successful in applying this technology to their specific business environment, whether it is oil refining, pulp and paper production, mining, fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals, or other process industries.”
About ExperTune:
For 19 years, ExperTune has created award-winning optimization software that runs in thousands of plants world-wide. PlantTriage® Performance Supervision Software oversees the optimization of an entire plant. PlantTriage® optimizes the entire process, including instrumentation, controllers, and valves. ExperTune's full suite of optimization tools is designed to increase the efficiency of processes. The company's analysis tools include simulation, modeling, robustness, linearization, valve wear analysis, pH linearizer, time series analysis, multivariable, statistical, frequency response, and PID tuning tools.
ExperTune is a member of the OPC Foundation.