Why is vibration measurement crucial for systems with rotating parts, such as motors or fans?
Vibrations and oscillations mean higher wear and tear and therefore higher maintenance costs for rotating system parts. Unplanned downtimes due to suddenly failing components cause high costs for existing systems. There are many older systems whose condition is not adequately monitored, especially in the case of moving, stressed parts. There is a lack of digital options to simplify such monitoring. At a TÜV Rheinland seminar last year, it was emphasised that 30 to 35 percent of damage to systems could be avoided if a condition monitoring system was installed.
Why is your measurement solution particularly suitable for retrofitting?
Retrofitting should be uncomplicated at best. Thanks to wireless communication, our IIoT measurement solution is not cable-bound and is therefore easy to integrate. The measuring nodes can be screwed, welded or even glued or fixed to the respective machine using an adhesive magnet. A rigid connection to the measuring equipment is important. The installed measuring nodes and gateways then recognise and network themselves. Data transfer to a cloud or server can be customised via WLAN, Ethernet or a special LTE data card for industrial measurement solutions.
What data analysis options do users of your measurement solution have?
Vibration measurements in three directions actually generate large amounts of raw data, which we can avoid thanks to the intelligent pre-configuration of the measurement nodes. The sensors then only provide the desired vibration measurement values for the user. For the evaluation, we have programmed a monitoring solution in which individual dashboards are created based on the customer's system(s). The structure can depict individual systems, but also buildings, the company or cross-national locations. Using a traffic light system, I can recognise that there is an anomaly at the site in Germany, in building B, in machine room 1, on machine 5, for example, and that action needs to be taken here.
How feasible is it for the customer? How much support do you provide?
That depends very much on the expertise of the customer company. If necessary, we provide advice on integration on site. In addition, every company receives instruction on how to analyse the monitor. We can also work with the customer to develop the necessary dashboard functions and alarm values.The practical aspect of this type of retrofit is really the flexibility and bidirectional communication. It is possible to communicate instructions for data transmission to the measurement nodes at any time, as well as to remove sensors and gateways or add others. In this way, companies can approach condition monitoring step by step and make their system fit for the future.
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We are curious about your vibration measurement project
Contact your Althen Smart Solutions sales engineer.