Author: John Mulindi
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PLC Input & Output Modules Circuits
The PLC Input/output modules are control ports either built into the PLC unit or, more commonly, are packaged as separate plug-in modules where each module contains a set of ports. These I/O modules act as interfaces to the outside world. I/O Modules can be broadly classified into two groups: Those that utilize discrete I/O levels…
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Disaster Recovery in Cloud Hosting: Lessons from Real Downtime Events
It is easy to believe that cloud hosting is bulletproof. This belief is dangerous, as even the best cloud infrastructure fails sometimes. Outages take place in the form of: natural disasters, power failures, cyberattacks, and plain old human mistakes. They all can bring your site or service down. When cloud providers experience downtime, the world…
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Maintenance Tips for Power Transformers
Maintenance is a routine and recurring activity of keeping a particular equipment or facility at its normal operating condition so that it can deliver its expected performance or service without causing any loss of time on account of accidental damage or breakdown. In other words, maintenance can be described as measures adopted to ensure that…
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How to Choose the Perfect Thermal Mass Flow Meter
Among all flow meter types, thermal mass flow meters have become a go-to solution for accurate gas flow measurement in many industries, from manufacturing and chemical processing to environmental monitoring and research laboratories. Their ability to provide precise, repeatable, and direct mass flow readings—without the need for temperature or pressure compensation—makes them highly valuable. But…
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Tube & Tube Fittings – Instrument Tubing Connections
Tube is a hollow structure that is designed to provide an enclosed pathway for fluids to flow just in the same way as the pipe. Tubes are manufactured from rolled or extruded metal however plastic is a common tube material for many industrial applications. In this article we discuss some of the common methods for…
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What is the function and application of a Modulation Analyzer?
Modulation analyzer is used in communication systems for investigating amplitude, frequency and phase-modulated RF signals. Also referred to as a precision receiver, it can measure carrier frequency and power in addition to modulating frequency, modulation depth, frequency deviation and so forth. It is applied in testing transmitters, RF signal generators, attenuators, and other communication circuits.…
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Distortion Meter vs. Wave Analyzer, How do they Differ?
Though these two instruments may appear similar in their functionality, there are actually subtle differences between them in terms of their functions and operations. The distortion meter is used to measure the total harmonic distortion content in an input waveform whereas the wave analyzer is used to measure relative amplitude of single frequency components in…
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NAMUR NE 43 for Process Instrumentation Diagnostics
NAMUR NE 43 is a recommendation that seeks to promote the standardization of the signal level for failure information. The objective of NAMUR NE 43 is to set the foundation for proactively employing transmitter failure signals in process instrumentation and control. Using these failure signals, instrument faults are separated from process measurements. Because the faults…
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Pipe & Pipe Fittings: Common Connection Types & Features
Instruments may be connected to their corresponding processes and to each other by using pipe, tube and/or wires. In this article we focus on pipe and pipe fittings; the common techniques for joining pipes together and joining pipe ends to equipment such as flow measurement instruments. Pipe and Pipe Fittings Pipe can be defined as…
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Standard Pipe Sizes
The pipe size is normally specified with two numbers i.e. the nominal pipe diameter (or bore) and the pipe schedule. This then sets the outside pipe diameter, the wall thickness and thus the internal diameter. With the exception of specialist applications, commercially available pipes come in standard sizes. Pipes manufactured in standard sizes are available…