July 2009
Volume XV, No. 7
New Metering System Makes Its Mark on the Printing Industry

Spilled Ink
New Meter Makes Its Mark on the Printing Industry
Some of the largest printers in the printing industry are also manufacturers of ink. For these companies, which churn out massive quantities of printed product on a daily basis, it is often more economical to manufacture their own ink rather than purchase it from an outside supplier. However, this approach does not come without its own inherent costs.

Q&A: A Primer on SIS
Understanding Process Safety Systems Design
Mike Boudreaux is the DeltaV SIS product manager at Emerson Process Management in Austin, Texas. Prior to joining Emerson, he previously filled various engineering, sales and marketing roles at AkzoNobel and Alcoa. While at AkzoNobel, Mr. Boudreaux gained his experience specifying, designing and implementing safety instrumented systems. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Houston and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He is a member of the ISA 84 functional safety standards committee and he is a co-chair for ISA 99 Working Group 7 on safety and security. Here Mr. Boudreaux fields question from Flow Control on the history of and trends in Safety Instrumented Systems design.

Airflow Troubleshooting Strategy
Achieving Production Efficiency Through Proper Air Systems Maintenance
Many industries utilize air for production purposes like mixing, pressurizing, atomizing and agitating applications. Applications include oil and gas, food, pharmaceutical, etc. By managing compressed-air systems and controlling airflow in such scenarios, users can improves production efficiency by up to 50 percent.

Increasing Heat Exchanger Performance
Examining the Effects of Pressure & Temperature Conditions
To optimize and improve heat exchanger performance, process personnel must operate the exchanger within its designed and specified limits. Also, personnel must identify those operating parameters that can affect heat exchanger performance.

mailbag: Reader Raises the Issue of Static Head
Vessel-to-Vessel vs. Open- or Closed-Loop Pumping Systems
I received an overwhelming response to one of my recent columns in Flow Control magazine, “Book Smarts: A Young Engineer Gets Schooled on Pump Basics." All told, more than 50 readers sent me written comments on this installment of the “Pump Guy.” Here I provide you a few select comments, with a response to a comment by Flow Control’s very own “Applications Corner” and “Quiz Corner” columnist, David W. Spitzer.

QUIZ CORNER:
The Difference Between Component & System Accuracy
A flow measurement system consists of a flowmeter element, transmitter and indicator. If each of the three components has an accuracy of 1 percent, the performance of the flow measurement system is approximately ...

Considering Capillary Tubing
How the Application Affects Tubing Length Requirements
In the last two months we examined the installation of impulse tubing in high-pressure steam flowmeter applications and removal of high-pressure steam flow transmitters from service. We found that measurement error can occur due to the different densities of the liquids in the impulse tubes in non-horizontal impulse tubing runs. A similar effect can occur when diaphragm seals are used with differential-pressure transmitters. Differential-pressure transmitters with diaphragm seals are not commonly applied to flow measurements, but they are quite commonly applied to level measurements.

VIEWPOINT:
What Are Your Digital Likes & Dislikes?
As you may have heard, the newspaper and consumer magazine business is experiencing an economic downturn comparable only to what we’re currently seeing in the automobile industry. And while the business-to-business trade journal segment has been somewhat less affected by the hardships experienced in the newsstand sector, I’d be a liar if I said we at Flow Control weren’t monitoring the goings on in the larger publishing world with raised eyebrows. Our hope is that we will be able to learn some lessons from what is now going on in consumer publishing to more effectively and efficiently maneuver around any obstacles that may lie in our future. That's why we're asking for your opinion here.