The Challenge of Industrial EMC

The established methods of military/communicationsoriented electromagnetic compatibility are often not applicable to modern industrial computer/microprocessor-dominated control systems. The reason is: operating conditions for communications and for control systems are in some respects distinctly different; so much so that a different approach, here denoted electromagnetic "compossibiity," is very much needed for control systems. It includes the consequential mandatory safety measures (National Electrical Code (NEC),etc.). Generically, it requires a systemic planning based on partition, isolation, and redundancy (instead of frequency management). Specifically, it has to eliminate widespread, but misleading, oversimplifications still to be found in the speciously simple matters of grounding, filtering, and shielding.