Steven Carbone
Technical Education Committee Member
Industrial Electro Mechanics
Savannah, Georgia
Historically many of our customers have often had a reactive approach to maintenance of their electromechanical machines, resulting in costly unplanned downtime and unnecessarily high repair costs. As our customers continue to increase their focus on proactive reliability-centered maintenance, we must continue to evolve by offering innovative solutions for their needs. We are now in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and it gives us a great opportunity to solve our customers’ biggest challenges by using sensors, data and analytics to shift their maintenance strategies. This allows our customers to focus on leading indicators and prediction versus reactive firefighting.
An ideal technology to achieve this is through utilizing the information from vibration data collection. Almost everyone in our industry is aware of this technology and have been using it for many years, but vibration data collection and analysis will continue to be one of the best leading indicators to prevent unplanned downtime. With this, technology continues to advance, lowering hardware and software costs, which has resulted in a significant increase in wireless vibration monitoring products available on the market and the subsequent customer adoption of these products. Not only is it important to select the appropriate wireless vibration product from a technical standpoint, but you must have the appropriate strategy in place to integrate these systems into your customers’ maintenance programs, so they can achieve the true value of the data.
Core Capabilities of Wireless Vibration Monitoring
Real-time Monitoring
Continuous real-time monitoring is the major advantage of a wireless system versus a typical route-based data collection process. This can increase the amount of data points from once a month to multiple times a day, providing a significant leading indicator into the health of the machine, identifying degradation and allowing the customer to plan for corrective action.
Data Transmission
Based on the chosen system, there are various ways to collect and transmit data. It typically starts with a battery powered accelerometer, transmitted wirelessly to a nearby bridge, and then transmitted to a nearby gateway. The gateway then brings the data to an internal network or by using a cellular signal, where it can then transmit the data to a central location (Figure 1). Installation of these systems is typically plug and play with simple wiring requirements, epoxy or magnetic mounting of the physical sensors on the assets, and software setup. The startup and installation process varies by manufacturer and appropriate research should be conducted to determine what makes the most sense for your organization.
Precision Diagnostics
Wireless vibration sensors can offer the same data quality as you would expect from typical route-based data collection. The sensors offer high resolution data allowing for analysts to identify bearing faults, imbalance, misalignment and looseness, just to name a few. The level of detail depends on the chosen system, but if the data is available, proactive decisions can be made for corrective action on machines that are degrading.
Actionable Intelligence
Now that the data is available, the software analyzes the data and presents the information in a clear manner so action can be taken. Most systems allow for automated alerts at predetermined thresholds. There is no need for an end user to track all their assets when a majority are operating acceptably. This frees up the end user to focus on the assets with faults that will impact production (Figure 2).
Once a machine starts degrading and an alert is activated, it’s important that the data is insightful and can offer the first steps to troubleshooting. The best systems offer analysis through a combination of artificial intelligence and human review allowing the maintenance person to have a targeted approach when ready to correct the issue (Figure 3).
Opportunities for EASA Members
Increased Service Offerings
As electromechanical service organizations, it is imperative that we offer innovative, proactive solutions to our customers’ needs. Wireless vibration programs do just that. This new service can offer a high level of value to your customers without creating the need to make a significant investment compared to more complex hardwired systems. Not only can you offer the base package of monitoring and analysis, but you can consider offering additional tiers of support that can incorporate preventative maintenance and extended warranties.
There are many systems available on the market, and it is important to select one that meets the goals of your business and your customers. Not only will offering this service to your customers make an immediate positive impact on their operations, but it will also strengthen your long-term relationship with them by being a part of their overall asset health strategy. Discussions should consistently take place with your customers regarding the health of their assets and where you can best support them.
Optimize Operationally and Gain a Competitive Edge
By giving your customers a solution for proactive maintenance resulting in improved planning, you too will be able to plan better for upcoming repair jobs at your facility or in the field. Advantages will be that the parts will be ordered ahead of time, scheduling will be balanced and there will be improved sales forecasting. Being that you have developed the cadence with your customer, you’ll also know when items need service before that 2:00 AM phone call.
Not only will this strengthen your relationship with existing companies, but it will also give you a competitive advantage in the market as you develop new relationships. Not all service centers are created equal, and the ones with innovative solutions are the ones that grow. Customers will be happy to refer you to their peers when you have improved their business through increased uptime and cost savings.
Shaping the Future of Asset Management
As with our customers, wireless vibration continues to evolve, so we must also. It is imperative that we stay on the cutting edge of technology and offer the smartest solutions to grow our businesses and relationships, and we continue to raise the bar for reliability across all industries. As EASA members, we must strategically adopt and leverage these new technologies or someone else will. With this mindset, we will continue to be partners with our customers.
*Images used permission of Skyler.
