This approach to condition monitoring machinery would be a boon to Plane Engineers with the resposibility for maintaining machinery in a production plant. Now,as the article states, separate pieces of equipment are required to monitor temperature, pressure and vibration. All inclusive instrumentation would be a great advance in maintaining production and increasing the bottom line.
This approach to condition monitoring machinery would be a boon to Plane Engineers with the resposibility for maintaining machinery in a production plant. Now,as the article states, separate pieces of equipment are required to monitor temperature, pressure and vibration. All inclusive instrumentation would be a great advance in maintaining production and increasing the bottom line.
William, I can understand your reservations about integrated safety. But the incentives to eliminate the separate Safety PLC from the total system cost point of view, redundancy features plus implementing safety software using the same development tools as the rest of the machine seem to be winning among users. Suppliers will need to prove that these systems with multiple applications running on a single machine controller will operate reliably over the long haul.
"The answers were not necessarily surprising but they did confirm recent initiatives to provide more tightly integrated solutions."
AI, yes peoples are looking for single point solutions. They don't want to refer different data set or devices for analyzing, instead they prefer a single point solution where they can get all in a capsulated form.
I have a concern and a caution about putting any safety controls on the same controller as condition monitoring code or data acquisition code, and really, any other code. My reason for concern is that sometimes programs lock themselves into conditions that prevent the rest of the program from executing. That could cause a disaster if it inhibeted some safety function that was needed urgently. Perfect code would have no problms, of course, but not all code is perfect. So while there mnay not be any problems arise from running all of the code, including safety functions, on one controller, it is leaving an opportunity for problems available.
Al, Thanks for reply and the investigation into the module supporting development of Control Charts. Look forward in the hearing B&R Automation response.
Not sure if the B&R package provides the specific data for Control Charts or not. Will see if I can check on that. The goal of these condition monitoring modules from B&R is to precisely detect cases when service work may be needed-- along with being very easy for the user to configure. Back of Chuck's question, that makes implementing the feature easier because most of the specific software functionality is already provided.
Chuck, I think the issue with Preventive Maintenance is both hardware and software. What vendors are working toward are standard packages within their development tools which allows users to very easily implement software solutions using standard tools. In the case of wind turbines for example, where reliability is critical and detecting problems can save big $, vendors are offering optional add-ons to their systems to provide advanced functionality.
Al, Interesting article and survey results. With this module that B&R Automation developed to monitor machine performance, is it possible to obtain data for creating Control Charts?
I'm curious, Al -- you mention that preventative maintenance was rarely practiced due to the high cost of conventional systems. Is it the high initial cost of the systems or the cost of implementing them?
New versions of BASF's Ecovio line are both compostable and designed for either injection molding or thermoforming. These combinations are becoming more common for the single-use bioplastics used in food service and food packaging applications, but are still not widely available.
Andrew Morris designed a circuit that could detect a stroke victim's groan and convert the sound into a signal so caregivers would know when help was needed.
New disc magnet motors fit into the design trend of stepping up to closed loop performance while maintaining the cost advantage of stepper motor technology.
At the Design News webinar on June 27, learn all about aluminum extrusion: designing the right shape so it costs the least, is simplest to manufacture, and best fits the application's structural requirements.
On April 21, NASA launched a novel project, putting into orbit three satellites that employ an off-the-shelf commercial smartphone as the control system.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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