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Basic Instrumentation Terminologies Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by

Basic instrumentation terminologies

This is a draft cheat sheet. It is a work in progress and is not finished yet.

Introd­uction

Instru­men­tation
It's a branch of engine­ering that studies the measur­ement and control of process variable
instrument
It's a device that is used to measure or control the process variable

Temper­ature

Temper­ature
It's a degree of hotness or coldness of a body
Heat
It's a form of energy that can be used to do work
Thermo­-couple
A temper­ature sensor that uses the principles of change in EMF developed between two dissimilar metals connected at one junction (hot/me­asuring junction & cold/r­efe­rence junction)
Grounded hot junction
A Thermo­-couple were by the sensing element is physical attached to the inside of the probe wall.
Ungrounded junction
A Thermo- couple were by the sensing element is isolated from the inside of the probe wall.
Exposed Junction
A Thermo­-couple were by the sensing element is exposed to the surrou­nding enviro­ment.
Ambient temper­ature
It's the air temper­ature that surrounds us.
Resistance Temper­ature Detect­or(RTD)
A temper­ature sensor which measures temper­ature using the principles that the resistance of metal changes with temper­ature.
Black body
Is a body that absorbs all the radiation falling upon it.

Pressure

Pressure
It's a force applied on a surface per unit area.
Absolute pressure
Total pressure exerted above absolute zero.p­ressure
Gauge pressure
It's the pressure exerted above atmosp­heric pressure.
Atmosp­heric pressure
It's the pressure exerted by the weight of atmosp­here.
Vacuum
It's the pressure exerted below atmosp­heric pressure.
Differ­ential pressure
It's the algebraic difference between two pressures.

Final Control Element

Final control element
It's a device that manipu­lates a process variab­le(­process control system)
Control valve
It's a mechanical device that is fitted in a pipeline throttling the flow.
Actuator
It's a mechanical device that controls the valve.
Air regulator
It's a mechanical device that is used to regulate the pressure and keep it constant.
Lock-up device
It's a device that is used to seal the air system feeding a pneumatic operated control valve in the event of an air failure.
Volume booster
It's an auxiliary force balance pneumatic which speeds up the response of a diaphragm motor when actuated by a pneumatic signal.
Positioner
It's a device that receives and gives control signals for the actuator and make sure to move it to desired position.
Electr­opn­eumatic transducer (I/P)
It's a transducer which convert analog electric controller signal into propor­tional air signal.
Solenoid valve
It's an electr­ome­cha­nical operated valve.
Stroking
It's a procedure of checking out the operation of a control valve.

Electr­onics

Electr­onics
It's a study of how to control the flow of electrons.
Soldering iron
It's an instrument use to do soldering on electronic component.
Flux
It's a chemical that removes the oxides during the soldering process, forcing the oxides away from the solder joints.
Soldering wire
It's a fusible metal alloy with a low temper­ature melting point used to perman­ently join two metals that have a higher melting point.
Resistor
It's an electrical component that resist the flow of current.
Resistance
It's an opposition to the flow of current.
Potential difference
It's the difference of electrical potential between two points.
Current
It's the rate of flow of charge.
Capacitor
It's an electrical component that stores electrical energy in an electric field.
Capaci­tance
It's the ability of an electrical component to store energy in a form of electric charge.
Conductor
It's a material that have a low resist­ance.
Semi-c­ond­uctor
It's a material that have moderate resist­ance.
Insulator
It's a material that have a high resist­ance.
Power
The rate at which energy is being transf­erred in an electric power.
Light Dependent Resist­or(LDR)
It's an input transducer which converts brightness to resist­ance.
Thermistor
It's an input transducer which converts temper­ature to resist­ance.
Inductor
An inductor is a passive electronic component that stores energy in the form of a magnetic field.
Transducer
It's a device that convert one type of signal into another type of signal.
Input transducer
Convert a quantity to an electrical signal or resist­ance.
Output transducer
Convert an electrical signal to another quantity.
Altern­ating current
It's an electric current which period­ically reverses direction and changes magnitude contin­uously
Direct current
It's an electric current which flows in one direction
Diode
It's an electrical component that allows current to flow in one direction.
Transistor
It's a semico­nductor device with three connection used to amplify or switch electronic signals.
Integrated circuit
It's an assembly of electronic component scuffed in a chip.
Cathode Ray Oscill­oscope
Breadboard
It's a board used to make temporary circuit.
Stripboard
It's a board used to make permanent circuit.