Process/Industrial Instruments and Controls Handbook, 5th Edition

Rating:
Summary: A good book for industrial automatic control
Review: A good book for who works in the area of industrial automation and for students who want a complete source of information about that matter. Among its special features, I found a good qualitative explanation for the on/off, P, PI, PD and PID modes of control, showing the physical process that occurs behind each one. It also develops a good theory about the work principles of some measure instruments and sensors. However, although this book covers almost everything in industrial automatic control, it is very brief in commenting some aspects to which more attention should be given. Perhaps the new edition is better than this one. In a few words, if want to have the practical sense of automation and control, this is a good one. But if you want a precise description for every phenomena, look for a book turned to Control Theory.

Rating:
Summary: Typical McGraw-Hill Handbook
Review: Like most other McGaw-Hill handbooks this is a collection of articles, which for the most part, have been written by equipment manufacturers. The information is often thin and superfical. Some areas of the book are so simplistic they're laughable. For example, among the "Rules of Thumb" there is this enlightening suggestion: " Understand the process before designing a control system for that process". Also there is this jem " Design the control system before implementing the control system". Still, the book isn't all bad. There is some good information here but it isn't consistent. I doubt there is enough useful information to justify the cost of this very expensive book.