Control Industrial Rojas Almanza Jos’e Efren

Convertion 4-20 mA
The most popular way to transmit signals in industrial instrumentation, even today, is the standard 4 to 20 milliamps
DC. This is a standardized signal, which means that the current signal is used proportionally to represent signals of steps
or outputs.
Typically, a value of 4 milliamperes of current represents 0% of measurement, and a value of 20 milliamperes represents
100% of the measurement, and any other value between 4 and 20 milliamperes represents a percentage between 0% and
100% .
For example, if we are calibrating a temperature transmitter to 4-20mA to measure a range of 50 to 250 degrees C, we
could represent the values ââof current and temperature as the following graph:

This 4-20mA signal is also used for control systems to command positioners in a control valve or in variable speed drives.
In these cases, the milliamp value does not represent a measure of the process, but a degree in which the final element of
control influences the process. Typically (but not always!) The 4 milliamps command to close the control valve or stop
an engine, while 20 milliamps command to fully open a control valve or put a motor at its maximum speed.
Therefore, almost all (even today) control systems use two different 4-20mA signals: one to represent process variables
(PV) and one to represent commands towards a final control element (the manipulated variable or MV).

The relationship between these two signals depends entirely on the response of the controller. There is no reason to
say that the two signals are going to be the same, because they represent two totally different things. In fact, if the
Control Industrial Rojas Almanza Jos’e Efren

controller is of reverse action, it is quite normal for the two signals to be inversely proportional, when the process signal
PV increases goes to the reverse action controller then the output signal will be decremented. If the controller is put
in ”manual” mode by the operator, the output signal will not be automatically provided to the input signal PV at all,
however this signal will be fully manipulated to suit the operator.

Providing 4-20mA signals to measured variables

A 4 to 20 mA signal represents some signal on a scale of 0 to 100 as a percentage. Usually, it is a linear scale, such as:

Being a linear function, we can use the equation of a line to proportionally measure the measured signals to their respec-
tive current values:

y = mx + b
Where:

y = Instrument output

x = Instrument Input

m = Slope of the line

b = intercept point with respect to y (for example the zero ”live zero” of the instrument range)

Once the appropriate values ââfor m and b have been determined, we can then use this linear equation to predict
any value for y given a value x, and vice-versa. This will be very useful for us when we seek to determine the value of
4-20mA output signal from any transmitter, or the rod position of a valve between a 4-20mA signal output, or any other
correspondence between a 4-20mA signal and some physical variable.

References