Forestry Products

The key to making the proper decisions on condition monitoring is to understand what kind of information is required, how often that information is needed and what kind of budget is in play.

The concepts of “preventive maintenance” and “condition monitoring” are not always characterized in a way that is entirely accurate. They sometimes seem to be treated as a “one-size-fits-all” service that many operators believe they need. However, these concepts can mean very different things depending on the application.

Recently an article was published that presented an easily constructed Excel sheet that estimates hydrodynamic noise in control valves1. A number of people have asked me if there is something similar for aerodynamic noise. 

Investing in oil reclamation technology can help reduce the costs associated with oil usage. Learn more in the article below.

A veteran of valve sizing with more than 40 years of experience provides his perspective on how to calculate the compressibility factor of a real gas for control valve sizing purposes.

Most control valve manufacturers include IEC 60534-8-4:2015 in their control valve sizing and selection software to predict control valve hydrodynamic noise. However, users who want to make quick noise predictions or who want to construct valve sizing applications, programming the above noise standard can be a daunting task. 

If one wants to be able to do accurate hand calculations, or construct a simple program or Excel sheet, the method described here gives answers that agree exactly with iterative calculations using the equations in the current version of the ISA and IEC standards.

The availability of an easily constructed Excel worksheet that calculates and graphs control valve installed gain in conjunction with the user’s preferred control valve sizing application has prompted a new interest in the application of these calculations. Three examples are shown here.

As long as products have had ethernet ports, people have been asking for remote access to them. They believed they could just plug the devices into the internet, and it would all work. As more software tools became available and internet speeds increased, capable users found ways to give themselves access, however, there was a catch.

Thermocouples and controllers themselves do not prevent a failure from occurring. What they can do is create a temperature profile for a heater that can be used as a maintenance log.

Inside of plants today, AC motors are becoming the industry standard. Many plants are shifting to AC motors from hydraulic motors or DC motors when powering heavy loads, which were more popular in the past. This shift can be attributed to a variety of reasons and most have to do with cost.

When selecting the pipes and valves for a cooling system, it is important to understand the options available—and the possible outcomes associated with each selection. Many factors can impact the effectiveness, longevity and quality of the overall cooling system. Learn more.

United Electric Controls has introduced a unique new family of HART capable transmitters that provides programmable switching functionality for industrial process monitoring applications. The One Series 1XTXSW transmitter line is the first to integrate HART 7 compatible 4-20 mA output. Lean more.

Making smart design decisions, particularly in relation to the suction line, can avoid potentially severe cavitation-induced damage to hydraulic pumps.

Workplace safety is—or should be—a primary focus of every organization, regardless of whether we’re talking about a classroom, an office, a manufacturing facility, or an oil rig. Employees deserve a workspace that is as safe and secure as it can possibly be.

This is Part IV in a four-part series based on the contents of the new textbook, “Control Valve Application Technology, Techniques and Considerations for Properly Selecting the Right Control Valve.”

Plant engineers often fail to incorporate correct lubrication into system processes and do not realize its critical importance until something goes wrong.

Cavitation is the 2nd leading cause of a pump system failure. It’s for this reason that a full understanding of what cavitation is, how it is caused and how it can be prevented is critical in the fluid power industry.

In order to get good control with stability throughout the full range of required flow rates, one must use a control valve that has an installed flow characteristic that is linear, or at least as close to linear as possible in most systems.

This is Part II in a four-part series based on the contents of the new textbook, “Control Valve Application Technology, Techniques and Considerations for Properly Selecting the Right Control Valve.”

This article discusses the importance of selecting the correct flow characteristic and correctly sizing the valve in order for the valve to properly control the process.

Considering the number of variables, gaining precise control of a process heating application can be a difficult task. In industries with a high demand for consistent quality, controlling the temperature of a substance from the start to the finish of a process is an absolute necessity. Learn more.

Loss of containment is one of the costliest things that can go wrong at a plant. Accordingly, smart enterprises employ a variety of measures that ensure loss of containment just doesn’t happen – or when it does, the adverse circumstances are kept to a minimum.

When using a servo motor, one should consider torque, speed, and other applications for a specific motion control application.

Certain frequencies of sound can play havoc on industrial equipment. When control valves are not selected appropriately, there is an increased risk for cavitation, which causes high noise and vibration levels, resulting in very rapid damage to the valve's internals and/or the downstream piping.

Advanced Process Control (APC) methods used to be so advanced as to be esoteric- too complex and unusable except by a few high-level experts. Today, however, it seems APC is little talked about for an entirely different reason: It’s become a commodity.

When control valve professionals talk about "control valve sizing," they really mean the entire process of selecting the valve that will do the best job of controlling the process. Selecting the right size valve is an important part of the process, but there are other equally important considerations as well.