Troubleshooting Process Plant Control
Chapter One
Learning from
Experience
An old Jewish philosopher once said, "Ask me any question, and if I know the
answer, I will answer it. And, if I don't know the answer, I'll answer it anyway."
Me too. I think I know the answer to all control questions. The only problem
is, a lot of my answers are wrong,
I've learned to differentiate between wrong and right answers by trial and
error. If the panel board operator persistently prefers to run a new control
loop I've designed in manual, if he switches out of auto whenever the flow
becomes erratic, then I've designed a control strategy that's wrong. So, that's
how I've learned to discriminate between a control loop that works and a
control strategy best forgotten.
Here's something else I've learned. Direct from Dr. Shinsky, the world's
expert on process control:
"Lieberman, if it won't work in manual, it won't work in auto."
"Most control problems are really process pro ... read full excerpt from Troubleshooting Process Plant Control ebook
