CONTROLS

Abstract

This is a preview of new equipment, developed and used for process and machinery control in plastics processing plants, which will be on display at the National Plastics Exhibition in Chicago, 1979. Microprocessors and miniaturized solid-state circuitry have been heavily exploited by the controls industry over the past couple of years, and they will predominate at NPE. This means a new generation of digital control devices that used to be analog, and control systems with greatly increased power and flexibility. The digital instruments are generally said to be easier to use and more sensitive and drift-free than analog units. The new control systems are based on microprocessors that can remember and process more information, so they can control more process variables and, in addition, report out more information about the efficiency of the process. Above all, they are more compact and easier to operate than systems based on conventional computers would be, and they cost much less.