ExperTune publishes paper on PID Configuration Errors

October 15, 2008
ExperTune Inc
Feature

Summary

October 15, 2008 - A whitepaper from ExperTune, "The Six Most Common PID Configuration Errors: How to Find and Fix Them", can be downloaded at no charge from:www.expertune.com/PIDconfig.html The PID Control Loop is one of the fundamental workhorses of the process industries. Day in and day out, millions of PID loops strive to keep processes safe, stable, and profitable. But there is a "secret," known only to control engineers and technicians. Many of these control loops are not properly configured, and the consequences could be devastating. A newly published white paper from ExperTune identifies the most common PID configuration issues, and provides techniques to help plant-based personnel find and fix these issues. George Buckbee of ExperTune says: "I have worked on thousands of control loops over the past 20 years. Most DCS systems require you to configure over 50 parameters for each PID Loop. It is very easy to make costly mistakes in the configuration, unless you know how to avoid these errors. Surprisingly, as many as 75% of control loops actually increase variability. Many control loops simply do not do their job. Setpoints are not followed, valves swing around, creating oscillations, and many loops are disabled by the operator: placed in MANUAL mode.Studies of control loops in the process industries give some insight into the root cause of these issues. For example: - 30% of DCS Control Loops Improperly Configured - 85% of Control Loops Have Sub-Optimal Tuning - 15% of Control Valves are Improperly Sized The whitepaper identifies the most common errors, and gives solutions for correcting or avoiding them. About ExperTuneFor 22 years, ExperTune has created award-winning optimization software that runs in thousands of plants world-wide. ExperTune's PlantTriage Performance Supervision Software oversees the optimization of an entire plant. PlantTriage optimizes the entire process, including equipment, operations, and controls. The PlantTriage suite of optimization tools are designed to increase the efficiency of processes. The tools include swing or oscillation detection and elimination, interaction analysis, modeling, robustness, linearization, valve wear analysis, pH linearization, time series analysis, MPC performance improvement, 6-sigma, frequency response, and PID tuning tools. ExperTune is a member of the OPC Foundation. Learn More

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