Lesson 1

ELX 321
INSTRUMENTATION AND PROCESS CONTROL
ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY
ELX INSTRUMENTATION TROUBLE SHOOTING AND

321 MAINTENANCE
1
OBJECTIVES
At the end of this module, you must be able to:

1. label the various diagram of a process control;
2. analyze the typical application and functional elements of instrumentation; and
3. discuss the importance of instrumentation to modern industries.
Instrumentation and Process Control
Technical knowledge and skills on instrumentation and process control is vital in

Instrumentation, Troubleshooting and Maintenance in the field of electronics
technology. Comprehensively, Onkar (2008) discussed instrumentation and process
control as follows:
Instrumentation
Instrumentation is a collection of instruments and their application for the
purpose of observation measurement and control. Instrumentation is also the basis for
process control in industry. However, it comes in many forms from domestic water
heaters and HVAC, where the variable temperature is measured and used to control
gas, oil, or electricity flow to the water heater, or heating system, or electricity to the
compressor for refrigeration, to complex industrial process control applications such
as used in the petroleum or chemical industry.
Instrumentation field has significant development as of now. It covers areas of

detection, acquisition, control and analysis of data in almost all the areas of science
and technology. Instrumentation is very vital to modern industries as plants, process
industries power plants, automatic production machines etc. various control
manipulation safety devices, etc. revolutionized automation of process control. This
brings tremendous savings in the time and labor involved. It also acts as extensions of
human senses and quite often facilitates retrieval of information from complex
situations. In short, instrumentation leads to being cost effective as it contributes in
evolving better quality, higher plant utilization, better msn power productivity,
material and energy savings, and speedier and accurate data collections.
Typical Applications of Instrumentation
Some of the instrumentation applications are:

1. Measurement of systems parameter information of the system or a process. These
can be the form of indication or registering or recording or monitoring or suitable
transmission as per needs of the systems. Medical care of the patients or the
maintenance of the machines or systems are using instrumentation very widely as
in such cases shutdowns are prohibitive or very costly.
2. An automatic control system uses instrumentation control which also provides
deliberate guidance or manipulation to maintain them at a set point or to change it
according to a preset condition.
2
3. Simulation of system conditions to simulate the actual conditions of complex cases
for studying true behavior under various conditions. These are also used for
prototype applications to established proper as per prototype design and
development.
4. Testing of materials, maintenance of standards and specification of products,
quality control in industries, and verification of physical phenomena as per
scientific theories etc.
FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF AN INSTRUMENT

The operation and performance of measuring instruments is described without
hardware details. The performance is the degree of approach to perfection. The
operation of the instruments can be defined in term of the functional elements of
instruments and performance characteristics.
An arrangement of functional elements in an instrument system may be seen in
a block diagram given in figure 1.1. The various elements are given below:
Sensing Conversion Manipulation

Measured Element Element
Element
Medium (variable) (variable)
(primary)
Measurand
Data Transmission
Observe Presentation Element
Element (data)
Storage
Playback
Element(data)
Measured Medium - is the physical quantity that is being measured.

Measurand - is the unknown quantity which is to be measured.
Primary Sensing Element - it is the receiver and sensor of the variable from the measured medium.
Variable Conversion Element - converts the variable or the signal into a more suitable variable.
Variable Manipulation Element - it filters or amplify the signal presented to it while the signal remains
unchanged.
Data Transmission Element - "Connection/Bridge" it transmits data from one element to another.
Data Presentation Element - it gives the information about the quantity under measurement to the
observer.
Process Control
Process control is the use of automated systems to regulate and control the process variables
within a specified range to produce consistent and high-quality output/product.
In order to produce a product with consistently high quality, tight process

control is necessary. A simple-to-understand example of process control would be the
supply of water to a number of cleaning stations, where the water temperature needs
to be kept constant in spite of the demand. A simple control block is shown in Fig.
1.1a; steam and cold water are fed into a heat exchanger, where heat from the steam
is used to bring the cold water to the required working temperature. A thermometer is
used to measure the temperature of the water (the measured variable) from the
process or exchanger. The temperature is observed by an operator who adjusts the
flow of steam (the manipulated variable) into the heat exchanger to keep the water
flowing from the heat exchanger at the constant set temperature. This operation is
3
referred to as process control, and in practice would be automated as shown in Fig.
1.1b.
Process control is the automatic control of an output variable by sensing the
amplitude of the output parameter from the process and comparing it to the desired or
set level and feeding an error signal back to control an input variable—in this case
steam. See Fig. 1.1b. A temperature sensor attached to the outlet pipe senses the
temperature of the water flowing. As the demand for hot water increases or decreases,
a
change in
the
water
temperature is sensed and converted to an electrical signal, amplified, and sent to a

controller that evaluates the signal and sends a correction signal to an actuator. The
actuator
adjusts the
flow of
steam to
the heat
exchanger to keep the temperature of the water at its predetermined value.
Figure 1.1
Process control (a) shows the manual control of a simple heat exchanger process loop
and (b) automatic control of a heat exchanger process loop.
Figure 1.2
Block diagram of a process control loop.
4
ACTIVITY: TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE
List some examples of Instruments, devices, equipments, and appliances and

write their function based on Instrumentation.
Example : Electric fan - it controls the rotation of the Fan Blade to produce air.
Onkar P. (2008. )Instrumentation and Process Control. Daryaganj, New Delhi. 64-68
William D. (2005). Fundamentals of Industrial Instrumentation and Process Control.

United States of America:The McGraw-Hill Companies. 1-3.

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ELX 321

INSTRUMENTATION AND PROCESS CONTROL

ELX INSTRUMENTATION TROUBLE SHOOTING AND

At the end of this module, you must be able to:

Instrumentation and Process Control

Technical knowledge and skills on instrumentation and process control is vital in

Instrumentation field has significant development as of now. It covers areas of

Typical Applications of Instrumentation

Some of the instrumentation applications are:

FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF AN INSTRUMENT

Sensing Conversion Manipulation

Measured Medium - is the physical quantity that is being measured.

In order to produce a product with consistently high quality, tight process

temperature is sensed and converted to an electrical signal, amplified, and sent to a

exchanger to keep the temperature of the water at its predetermined value.

List some examples of Instruments, devices, equipments, and appliances and

William D. (2005). Fundamentals of Industrial Instrumentation and Process Control.

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