Manufacturing process controls include all systems and software that exert control over production processes. Control systems include process sensors, data processing equipment, actuators, networks to connect equipment, and algorithms to relate process variables to product attributes. Since 1995, the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Industrial Technology 's (OIT) program management strategy has reflected its commitment to increasing and documenting the commercial impact of OIT programs. OIT's management strategy for research and development has been in transition from a "technology push" strategy to a "market pull" strategy based on the needs of seven energy-and waste-intensive industries-steel, forest products, glass, metal casting, aluminum, chemicals, and petroleum refining. These industries, designated as Industries of the Future (IOF), are the focus of OIT programs. In 1997, agriculture, specifically renewable bioproducts, was added to the IOF group. The National Research Council Panel on Manufacturing Process Controls is part of the Committee on Industrial Technology Assessments (CITA), which was established to evaluate the OIT program strategy, to provide guidance during the transition to the new IOF strategy, and to assess the effects of the change in program strategy on cross-cutting technology programs, that is, technologies applicable to several of the IOF industries. The panel was established to identify key processes and needs for improved manufacturing control technology, especially the needs common to several IOF industries; identify specific research opportunities for addressing these common industry needs; suggest criteria for identifying and prioritizing research and development (R&D) to improve manufacturing controls technologies; and recommend means for implementing advances in control technologies.

Professional publication of the RD & A community.

Industrial Process Control: Advances and Applications is a comprehensive, practical, easy-to-read book on process control, covering some of the most important topics in the petrochemical process industry, including Fieldbus, Multiphase Flow Metering, and other recently developed control systems. Drawing from his own experience and successes at such high-profile companies as Brown and Root and Honeywell spanning more than 20 years, the author explains the practical applications of some of the most intricate and complicated control systems that have ever been developed. - Compilation of all the best instrumentation and control techniques used in industry today - Interesting theoretical content as well as practical topics on planning, integration and application - Includes the latest on Fieldbus, Profibus and Multiphase Flow Metering