Process control systems are present in almost all modern automated and engineering systems. These systems are key to increasing productivity, maintaining quality, and improving safety.

Learning Objectives

  • Define a process
  • Define a control
  • List categories of processes
  • Define an open-loop control system
  • Define a closed-loop control system
  • Identify the advantages of using process control

Language: English
Estimate Time (Hrs.): 1.1
Process control systems are used in processes as simple as filling a tank with liquid and as complex as chemical engineering. However, the fundamentals and terminology are consistent for all control systems.

Learning Objectives

  • Identify the basic components of manual and automatic control systems
  • Identify the signal types in an automatic control system
  • List the advantages of a manual control system
  • List the advantages of an automatic control system
  • List factors that cause errors in a process control system
Language: English
Estimate Time (Hrs.): 1.7
Two key components of an automated process control system are the set point and the comparator. The set point device establishes a value for the desired state. The comparator device calculates how far the process is from this value.

Learning Objectives

  • List examples of set point devices
  • Define an op-amp device
  • List the functions that a comparator performs on feedback and input signals
  • Understand how an error signal is produced in a differential amplifier
Language: English
Estimate Time (Hrs.): 1
Keeping modern industrial automated systems under control can require high-level calculations and decisions. The controller is the component in a feedback loop that makes the calculations and decisions.

Learning Objectives
  • Identify the purpose of the controller in an automatic control system
  • Understand the differences between proportional, integral, and derivative controls
  • Identify the major types of PID controllers
  • Define loop tuning
  • Identify the major methods of loop tuning

Language: English
Estimate Time (Hrs.): 1.5

Industrial processes often require the control of several variables to achieve the desired state of a finished product. This course will discuss controlling these multivariate processes.

Learning Objectives

  • Define a multivariate process
  • Identify the key features of a multivariate process
  • Identify applications of multivariate process controls
  • Understand the terms coupling and decoupling

Language: English
Estimate Time (Hrs.): 1.2