In the not-so-distant past, instrumentation devices required regular inspection to identify faults and prevent downtime, requiring large maintenance teams and high costs. David Bowers explains, a how digitalisation is ushering in a new era for industrial maintenance.

Veolia Water Technologies has built an ultra-modern plant to produce drinking water in Ostend, Belgium. At critical points of the process sliding gate valves are responsible for regulating pressure and flow rate.

Intelligent actuators have helped improve and modernise the flow control system at a white water centre in the north-east of England.

Part-turn intelligent electric actuators from Rotork have been installed in several gas pressure reducing stations in Belgium to provide reliable flow control without the release of undesirable greenhouse gas emissions.

Thermowells have long been considered the best solution for measuring temperature in industrial applications. Dr. Guruprasad Sosale explains how developments in non-invasive temperature measurement are offering new possibilities for comparable performance while cutting the time, cost and disruption associated with setting up new measurement points.

Control engineering Europe finds out more about the benefits of radar technology for level sensing applications in the water sector.

Omniflex has supplied an SMS alert system to the University of Oxford’s Peter Medawar Building for Pathogen Research.

Today’s process control valves offer an ever wider range of features and benefits for industries that require precise control over fluids, steam and other gases. With so many control valves to choose from it is important to establish the features that will deliver the most cost-effective design for a particular application, says Damien Moran.

A producer of caprolactam – an organic chemical used as a precursor to the manufacture of synthetic fibres – required a solution to enable continuous monitoring of high-temperature liquid levels in tanks.

Understanding, monitoring and controlling flow rate, as part of industrial processes, are essential elements to the viable operation of production systems. Brendan Robson discusses what is involved in getting such measurements right and the hazards of getting it wrong.

It is critical that suppliers of remote I/O systems can connect to the most important networks used in industry today. PROFINET, EthernetIP, EtherCAT® and Modbus are all common networks used in Industrial Automation but how does a manufacturer of machines standardise, when their various customers specify different networks in their factories? Nigel Dawson, head of Business Development Electric Automation at Festo explains.

Denny Nelson explains how the latest non-contacting radar transmitters can overcome food processing challenges using frequency modulated continuous wave technology.

Mike Loughran discusses the migration path for introducing smart devices to a legacy system to enable IIoT. 

To ensure it gets the perfect testing equipment to meet its very specific needs, Hager builds its own test machinery. To do this it needed chose the optimum installation concept for the automated machines.

Denny Nelson explains how the latest guided wave radar technology can improve interface level measurement accuracy by halving the minimum detectable thickness of the upper product.

Periodic proof-tests are a necessity for level switches that form part of a safety instrumented system (SIS) and partial proof-tests provide a safe way to optimise the time interval between full tests. Marianne Williams compares different ways of performing partial proof-tests.

Despite the vital role played by flow meters in the oil & gas industry the meter management sills gap continues to grow, argues Alick MacGillivray.

Fraser Higgins explains why variable area flowmeters should not be overlooked when a simple yet versatile flowmetering solution is required.

Refineries need to improve profitability to stay competitive in today’s market. Delayed coking for heavy and sour oil refineries is potentially one of the most profitable operations available to refiners, says Raimar Hellwig.