Essentials of Modern Measurements and Final Elements in the Process Industry: A Guide to Design, Configuration, Installation, and Maintenance

Advances in sensor technology and in digital positioner and variable speed drive algorithms, combined with smart features, offer a step change in the performance of modern measurement instruments and final elements. The installed accuracy of many smart instruments has increased by an order of magnitude. There has been a correspondingly dramatic reduction in the drift of transmitters and a similar improvement in the resolution of control valves.

This comprehensive resource aims to increase awareness of the opportunities afforded by modern measurement instruments and final elements, and to show how to get maximum benefit from the revolution in smart technologies. It builds an understanding of the fundamental aspects of measurements, measurement instruments, and final elements for applications in the process industry. The terminology and ideas presented provide a firm foundation for subsequent chapters that focus on what is needed for lowest life-cycle cost and best automation system performance. The last chapter provides a comprehensive exploration of the technology that supports the rapidly expanding opportunities of WirelessHART instrumentation.

No prior plant experience with industrial process instrumentation is required. For students and new employees, the chapters on fundamentals will improve productivity on the job and form a basis for further study. For the seasoned veteran, the book offers insights and serves as a guide through today's myriad automation products and application details. It provides a picture of the state of the art for 95% of the field instrumentation and final elements used, or under consideration, in a modern process plant. The reader is encouraged to seek further information on particular types of measurement instruments and final elements, which is available from manufacturers via the Internet and in instrumentation handbooks and ISA publications.

Gregory K. McMillan, CAP, has more than 50 years of experience in industrial process automation, with an emphasis on the synergy of dynamic modeling and process control. He retired as a Senior Fellow from Solutia and a senior principal software engineer from Emerson Process Systems and Solutions. He was also an adjunct professor in the Washington University Saint Louis Chemical Engineering department from 2001 to 2004. McMillan is the author of numerous ISA books and columns on process control, and he has been the monthly Control Talk columnist for Control magazine since 2002. He started and guided the ISA Standards and Practices committee on ISA-TR5.9-2023, PID Algorithms and Performance Technical Report, and he wrote "Annex A - Valve Response and Control Loop Performance, Sources, Consequences, Fixes, and Specifications" in ISA-TR75.25.02-2000 (R2023), Control Valve Response Measurement from Step Inputs. McMillan's achievements include the ISA Kermit Fischer Environmental Award for pH control in 1991, appointment to ISA Fellow in 1991, the Control magazine Engineer of the Year Award for the Process Industry in 1994, induction into the Control magazine Process Automation Hall of Fame in 2001, selection as one of InTech magazine's 50 Most Influential Innovators in 2003, the ISA Life Achievement Award in 2010, and the ISA Mentoring Excellence award in 2020. He has a BS in engineering physics from Kansas University and an MS in control theory from Missouri University of Science and Technology, both with emphasis on industrial processes.