Incatools blog

We often don't have the time to sift through information on new products, especially when under pressure to find solutions for ongoing problems. To help you discover INCATools AptiTune, we've compiled a list of options to choose from to fit your busy schedule.

INCATools is a suite of process control tools that contains some of the most powerful PID tuning instruments on the market. INCATools AptiTune is the tool to be used to tune ALL your PID controllers: the easy, the tough, the non-interacting and the interacting ones.

To learn more about INCATools AptiTune, you can download a demo version of the software or request a live demo with one of our Control experts.

As a control engineer, you may get called by plant operators when a PID loop is a “bad actor”, causing problems on a distillation column. The process upset caused by this PID loop may have a destabilising impact on downstream process units as well, potentially causing widespread impact. Quite often, the “quick fix” for process operators is to insert these bad acting PID loops in manual. While this mitigates the immediate issue, the cost of such actions is poor performance of the distillation column. The control engineer is tasked with rectifying the problem. Is this a PID tuning issue or are the PID loops on the distillation column configured incorrectly? How would you ensure that the PID structures on a distillation column are configured correctly? You can read it in this blog.

A split range control strategy uses software or hardware-based splitter and two or more final control elements to control a process variable. You can find split range strategies in different applications across process industries such as temperature control with heating/cooling media, large and small valves installed in parallel, pressure control with a vent valve, etc. 

Usually, split range applications are tricky and time consuming, and you should know what I’m talking about as a process control engineer.

Oscillations over the entire range of operation and across the split point, typically improperly selected at 50%, are common in real operation. 

This blog will discuss the usual problems you might face when configuring and tuning a split range strategy and the possible and practical solutions to overcome it.

Every operations manager would like to improve the performance of their asset in a safe manner. You need to steer your plant operation through rapid business changes, and maintain products within the specified targets while always maintaining safe plant conditions. Further optimisation of your operation is not feasible with the current tools, and you know that Advanced Process Control (APC) has been successful in making further improvements in similar processes. How do you go about adopting APC for your facility?

Engineers are often tasked with troubleshooting and resolving process performance issues. The feedback from operators could be statements such as “this PID loop does not work in Automatic” or “I am always getting alarms in this variable” or “this PID loop has never worked in Automatic”. Understanding how to tackle these issues efficiently and effectively requires a systematic approach along with a good PID tuning tool. This blog explains how to go about achieving success in resolving PID tuning issues.

Advanced Process Control (APC) carries a raft of benefits. Any competent control engineer can list at least a dozen. That list will often contain only quantitative benefits - emphasizing production yields, feedstock flows, product qualities and the like. There are however also other benefits to advanced process control - benefits less strictly numeric, but nonetheless with a huge impact on operating efficiency.

As a production manager, you have one main goal: optimal and stable operations. You need to reach your production targets while taking care of the plant’s efficiency and safety. Optimal functioning of the entire production process in its broadest sense — achieving objectives for safety, quality, quantity, costs, environmental impact and reliability — is your responsibility. A low cost way t boost process performance therefore may seem like the holy grail.

In this blog, we'll describe 6 ways how PID Tuning boosts plant performance. Are you curious about this holy grail yet?

Leading specialty chemicals company, Lanxess Belgium, noticed the plant wasn’t working at its full potential. Many controllers were underperforming and in manual mode. Due to lack of time, the control engineers ran aground to complete optimization. Read in this blog what benefits they gained by using the INCATools software, or download the case study to discover the process and results.

When PID tuning is done right, it can provide significant benefits to your plant. A little help from PID tuning software can help tremendously to get your tuning on track. You can find many free PID tuning software downloads on the internet, or you can find a free PID tuner in your DCS. Nevertheless, are numerous companies that provide PID software licences at a fair price. But, why would you pay for a PID tuning software licence when you can do somewhat the same with the free versions? 

The answer is simple, the most critical PID loops in your plant will get left behind when you use free PID tuning software. The freeware will stand in the way of optimization and receiving the full ROI of your plant.

The principle of PID is very simple. Three subsets (P, I, D) of one equation that each have their own task. Nevertheless, the PID formula in your DCS/PLC can have many forms. The most common equations are the series and parallel equation. In this blog we'll show you that it's extremely important to know the different formulas to tune your controller.