Wireless & the process industry.

By providing a thorough exploration of wireless field devices and the challenges of using wireless devices in control, this valuable book, just released from the ISA stable, Wireless Control Foundation: Continuous and Discrete Control for the Process Industry, aims to improve wireless control planning, commissioning and troubleshooting.

“The book is ideal for those who have a solid understanding of process control and field devices, but have no experience using wireless field devices or working with control systems that support wireless control,” explains Terrence Blevins, a member of Control Magazine’s Process Automation Hall of Fame, who wrote the book along with co-authors Deji Chen, Mark Nixon and Willy Wojsznis.

While primarily targeted to control engineers responsible for designing, implementing, and maintaining control systems, the book is also intended for both process engineers involved in process design and control and instrumentation technicians who troubleshoot process control, measurement and instrumentation.

To help readers quickly understand wireless control implementation for the process industry, the book includes a variety of application examples showing how wireless devices are used to address many different control requirements. Workshops at the end of each chapter test knowledge retention, and a website that supports the book provides solutions to the workshops.

Among the many valuable topics covered include:

• Wireless control for both continuous and discrete application
• Control using wireless measurements and valves
• Commercially available analog and discrete wireless transmitter and throttling and on-off valves
• PID modifications that enable control through wireless measurement
• Valve position feedback when utilizing a wireless valve in control
• PID modifications that can significantly reduce the number of communications from the PID to the wireless valve
• The utilization of wireless field devices in advanced control
• The relationship of wireless technology to ISA and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)

Since some readers may work with an existing distributed controls system (DCS) that is not designed to provide native support for wireless field devices, information is provided on how a wireless gateway may be integrated into these older control systems using supported serial and Ethernet interfaces. In addition, the book addresses how dynamic simulation of process and wireless field devices may be created within a DCS in order to explore and support checkout and operator training on wireless control.