PROCESS CONTROL: PART II - PREPARING FOR THE EVOLUTION TO MILLWIDE CONTROL.

From the mid- to late-1960s, the pulp and paper industry realized the importance of digital control and optimization. But trained engineers capable of handling or fine tuning digital process controls in that period were rare since the U. S. had few universities or schools specializing in pulp and paper research. Consequently, suppliers took it upon themselves to supply computerized optimization packages, better known as 'black boxes. ' This paper describes the direct digital control and discusses the parameters which should be taken into account by management when considering process automation with computerized process control.