The phrase "a common device for" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a frequently used method or tool for achieving a particular purpose or effect.
Example: "In literature, symbolism is a common device for conveying deeper meanings and themes."
Alternatives: "a typical method for" or "a frequent tool for".
The virtual terminal is a common device for all implements in the cabin and all the implements may upload their user interface to that.
Potential technology change has a strong influence on projections of greenhouse gas emissions and costs of control, and computable general equilibrium (CGE) models are a common device for studying these phenomena.
The pulmonary catheter (PAC) is a common device for enhanced haemodynamic measurement.
No news is imparted despite the use of questioning, a common device for dealing with an imbalance of information (Heritage, 2012b).
This paper aims at simulating the flow of a pigment suspension in a short-dwell coater (SDTA), a common device used for the production of value-added paper.
In particular, the possibility of psychic conflict, especially that which could generate competing motives for action, had been a common device in ancient and medieval theories for distinguishing among passions, kinds of passions, and faculties of the soul in general.
Some restructuring specialists have suggested that bondholders be handed shares in the most troubled banks through debt-for-equity swaps, a common device in non-financial corporate workouts.
Because Alice has such a faltering grip on reality and Lucy willfully denies reality, both make for unreliable narrators — a common device in the currently hot publishing genre of psychological suspense (Gillian Flynn's "Gone Girl," Paula Hawkins's "The Girl on the Train").
All participants were required to use a pressurized metered dose inhaler (the most common device for controller medication in Australia) to allow adherence monitoring and data upload.
Gartner reckons that by next year, smartphones will overtake PCs as the most common device for accessing the web, at about 1.82bn v 1.78bn.
While command and control is the behaviour of choice, televisions still remain the most common device for catch-up viewing (53%), followed by computers (33%), tablets (22%) and smartphones (10%).
