Power Specialties: Industrial Markets

Established in 1967, Power Specialties was founded on the concept that customer service is of primary importance. Our staff of Sales Engineers are well trained in the application and selection of instrumentation and control products. Specializing in providing instrumentation and control solutions for industry:
  • Ethanol / BioFuel
  • Agricultural and Specialty Chemical
  • Power
  • Pharmaceutical
  • Manufacturing
  • Water/Wastewater
  • Food/Beverage
  • Oil and Gas Production
For more information, visit Power Specialties at  http://www.powerspecialties.com or call  (816) 353-6550 .

Rotary and Linear Damper Drives for Control of Combustion Air and Flue Gas

Electric Damper Drive
Electric Damper Drive (Rotork)
Combustion air and flue gas damper drives fill a critical role requiring safety, accuracy and reliability above all else. It is critical to deploy the best drive technology to maximize combustion efficiency, minimize emissions and reduce installation costs.

Damper Operator (Drives) Types :

Damper drives can be one of three types: pneumatic, electric, or electro-hydraulic, as described below.
  • Pneumatic. These damper operators are used whenever controls rely primarily on compressed air (pneumatic) for moving operators.
  • Electric. These damper operators are used whenever controls rely primarily electricity as the power source.
  • Electro-hydraulic. These damper operators are the same as the electric type described above, but also have a hydraulic system to position the damper.
Pneumatic Damper Drive
Pneumatic Damper Drive
(Rotork Type K)
A very important part of damper design is determination of damper torque and sizing and selection of damper actuator for the maximum torque. Actuator torque should be selected to provide the maximum torque required to operate the damper as well as to provide margin and allow for degradation over the life of the damper. Actuators should be evaluated for damper blade movement in both directions, at the beginning of blade movement, and while stroking blades through the full cycle of movement.

The Goal for Selecting the Best Drive Technology:

Reduced emissions, lower fuel consumption and improved boiler draft control.

Ways to achieve this goal:
Installed Damper Drive
Installed Damper Drive
  • High speed continuous modulation of ID/FD fan and inlet guide vanes 
  • Improved modulation and control of secondary air dampers 
  • Improved automation and burner management 
  • Quick response to plant demand 
  • Improved reliability in high temperature environments 
  • Precise damper and burner positioning 
  • Simple commissioning and diagnostics 
  • Low running costs, virtually maintenance free 
  • Pneumatic, analog and bus network communications 
For more information, review the document below, or download it at this link on Power Specialties website.

Basics of Pressure Measurement: Hydrostatic Pressure

pressure transmitter
Pressure transmitter
(Yokogawa)
Pressure measurement is an inferential way to determine the height of a column of liquid in a vessel in process control. The vertical height of the fluid is directly proportional to the pressure at the bottom of the column, meaning the amount of pressure at the bottom of the column, due to gravity, relies on a constant to indicate a measurement. Regardless of whether the vessel is shaped like a funnel, a tube, a rectangle, or a concave polygon, the relationship between the height of the column and the accumulated fluid pressure is constant. Weight density depends on the liquid being measured, but the same method is used to determine the pressure.

A common method for measuring hydrostatic pressure is a simple gauge. The gauge is installed at the bottom of a vessel containing a column of liquid and returns a measurement in force per unit area units, such as PSI. Gauges can also be calibrated to return measurement in units representing the height of liquid since the linear relationship between the liquid height and the pressure. The particular density of a liquid allows for a calculation of specific gravity, which expresses how dense the liquid is when compared to water. Calculating the level or depth of a column of milk in a food and beverage industry storage vessel requires the hydrostatic pressure and the density of the milk. With these values, along with some constants, the depth of the liquid can be calculated.

The liquid depth measurement can be combined with known dimensions of the holding vessel to calculate the volume of liquid in the container. One measurement is made and combined with a host of constants to determine liquid volume. The density of the liquid must be constant in order for this method to be effective. Density variation would render the hydrostatic pressure measurement unreliable, so the method is best applied to operations where the liquid density is known and constant.

Interestingly, changes in liquid density will have no effect on measurement of liquid mass as opposed to volume as long as the area of the vessel being used to store the liquid remains constant. If a liquid inside a vessel that’s partially full were to experience a temperature increase, resulting in an expansion of volume with correspondingly lower density, the transmitter will be able to still calculate the exact mass of the liquid since the increase in the physical amount of liquid is proportional to a decrease in the liquid’s density. The intersecting relationships between the process variables in hydrostatic pressure measurement demonstrate both the flexibility of process instrumentation and how consistently reliable measurements depend on a number of process related factors.

Contact Power Specialties at (816) 353-6550 or visit http:powerspecialties.com with any industrial pressure measurement application of requirement.

Happy Fourth of July from Power Specialties

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

THOMAS JEFFERSON, Declaration of Independence

Proper Wiring of Yokogawa ROTAMASS with Remote Converter

ROTAMASS 3
Yokogawa ROTAMASS
with remote converter.
The ROTAMASS 3 Series mass flowmeter features a heavy wall, seamless, dual tube design uniquely decoupled from any process vibration or pipeline stress guaranteeing reliability and output stability.

The ROTAMASS is available in two designs - an integral converter and a remote converter.

When working with the remote design, it's important to wire the remote converter to the flow tube properly to avoid signal error and faulty readings. The video below carefully explains the proper way to wire the two components together.

For any Yokogawa instrumentation requirement in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, or Missouri, contact Power Specialties. Visit http://www.powerspeciaties.com or call (816) 353-6550.

Rotary Drives for Industrial Damper and Louver Applications

Type K damper drives
Type K damper drives.
The Type K Range offers rotary and linear pneumatic damper drives for utility power plants, refineries, powerhouse boilers, furnaces and process heaters that require precise combustion air and flue gas handling solutions. Type K damper drives have proven to increase boiler efficiency, reduce maintenance, lower fuel consumption and reduce harmful emissions.
  • Drop-In-Place retrofit requires no field engineering or fabrication 
  • Improved reliability in high temperature environments 
  • Rated for 100% duty-cycle, continuous modulating service 
  • Highly accurate to 0.25% resolution 
  • Discrete contacts (O/C) and pneumatic, analogue or bus network (MOD) communications

Product Update: SMARTDAC+ GX/GP Series Recorders & GM Series Data Acquisition System Release 4

SMARTDAC+ GX/GP Series
Yokogawa Electric Corporation announced it's Release 4 of the SMARTDAC+® GX series panel-mount type paperless recorder, GP series portable paperless recorder, and GM series data acquisition system.

With this latest release, new modules are provided to expand the range of applications possible with SMARTDAC+ systems and improve user convenience. New functions include sampling intervals as short as 1 millisecond and the control and monitoring of up to 20 loops.

Overview


Recorders and data acquisition systems (data loggers) are used on production lines and at product development facilities in a variety of industries to acquire, display, and record data on temperature, voltage, current, flow rate, pressure, and other variables. Yokogawa offers a wide range of such products, and is one of the world’s top manufacturers of recorders. Since releasing the SMARTDAC+ data acquisition and control system in 2012, Yokogawa has continued to strengthen it by coming out with a variety of recorders and data acquisition devices that meet market needs and comply with industry-specific requirements and standards.

With this release, Yokogawa provides new modules with strengthened functions that meet customer needs for the acquisition and analysis of detailed data from evaluation tests. These modules decrease the cost of introducing a control application by eliminating the need for the purchase of additional equipment.


Enhancements


The functional enhancements available with Release 4 are as follows:

High-speed analog input module for high-speed sampling.
To improve the safety of electric devices such as the rechargeable batteries used in everything from automobiles to mobile devices, evaluation tests must be conducted to acquire and analyze detailed performance data. For this purpose, sampling at intervals as short as 1 millisecond is desirable. However, this normally requires an expensive, high-performance measuring instrument. When the new high-speed analog input module, a SMARTDAC+ system can sample data at intervals as brief as 1 millisecond, which is 1/100th that of any preceding Yokogawa product. This is suitable for such high performance applications such as measurement of the transient current in rechargeable batteries to vibration in power plant turbines. A dual interval function has also been added that enables the SMARTDAC+ to efficiently and simultaneously collect data on slowly changing signals (e.g., temperature) and quickly changing signals (e.g., pressure and vibration).

PID control module for control function
In applications that need both control and recording, such as controlling the temperature of an industrial furnace or the dosage process at a water treatment plant, there is a need for systems that do not require engineering and can be quickly and easily commissioned. In a typical control and monitoring application, a separate recorder and controller is required to control temperature, flow rate and pressure. At the same time, a data acquisition station must communicate with the controller to ensure data is being capture and recorded. It is time consuming and oftentimes confusing, to ensure the controller and the data acquisition station is communicating seamlessly. By combining continuous recording function of the SMARTDAC+ and PID control module into a single platform, customers can now seamlessly control and record critical process data in one system. The SMARTDAC+ can control, monitor and record up to 20 loops. Each PID control module comes with 2 analog inputs, 2 analog outputs, 8 digital inputs and 8 digital outputs.

Four-wire RTD/resistance module for precise temperature measurement
While three-wire RTDs are widely used in many fields such as research institutes to manufacturing, some applications require higher level of precision and accuracy that is only possible with 4-wire RTDs. A 4-wire RTD is the sensor of choice for laboratory applications where accuracy, precision, and repeatability are extremely important. To satisfy this need, Yokogawa has released a 4-wire RTD/resistance module for the SMARTDAC+


Target Markets


GX series: Production of iron and steel, petrochemicals, chemicals, pulp and paper, foods, pharmaceuticals, and electrical equipment/electronics; water supply and wastewater treatment facilities.

GP series: Development of home appliances, automobiles, semiconductors, and energy-related technologies; universities; research institutes.

GM series: Both of the above target markets.

For more information on the SMARTDAC+ GX/GP Series Recorders & GM Series Data Acquisition System in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, or Nebraska contact Power Specialties at (816) 353-6550 or by visiting http://www.powerspecialties.com.