50 Air Monitoring ENHANCED AVAILABILITY FOR GAS ANALYZERS
SOFTWARE-BASED PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE TO MINIMIZE REACTIVE SERVICING
As instruments that routinely interact with physical matter, gas analyzers contain parts that will require repair or replacement due to wear, ageing or contamination after a certain length of use. Not addressing such issues will eventually lead to a reactive service event and thus a period during which the instrument cannot perform gas analysis, with potentially serious consequences: unexpected downtime may mean that, for example, exhaust gas emissions from combustion cannot be measured according to regulations, or gas feeds to industrial processes are not tracked, potentially limiting the output of the production line. Maintenance and repairs that are left too late can impair productivity, disrupt sched- ules and cause stress among staff . Regular or occasional visual inspections will only give a partial picture of an instrument’s health status.
Predictive maintenance to maximize gas analyzer availability
S
uch issues can be minimized with a short regular checkup, for example by using SITRANS AID IQ, the new software solution for predictive maintenance of Siemens gas analyzers. It reads the instrument’s internal diagnosis data to detect early signs of deterioration, then makes predictions based on statistical data and expert algorithms, giving tech- nicians the time to deal with an issue while the instrument is still fully functional. Depending on the location, detailed identifi cation of an issue,
on-site service and spare part maintenance can require one or even two weeks. Using SITRANS AID IQ can reduce the mean time to repair by up to 90%. This minimizes downtime, ensures that mea- surement can resume much sooner, and increases overall confi dence in the process.
Aside from instrument availability, software-based predictive maintenance also helps to optimize workfl ows. Technicians usually have a diverse spectrum of instruments to manage, so a lot of specifi c knowledge about the various technologies is necessary to command each instrument. Being able to monitor several gas analyzers centrally from the convenience of a display screen saves precious time on visual instrument inspections and, when the gas analyzers are accessed remotely, on distances to walk within the facility. Checking the instruments’ status once a day, which usually takes only a few minutes, can save more than 20% of the time spent on preventive maintenance, freeing up valuable time to focus on other important activities. Moreover, the convenience of having a user-friendly software tool makes it much easier for new personnel to learn how to manage an existing installation of gas analyzers because less knowledge of hardware details is needed.
The monitored gas analyzer parameters
to minimize reactive servicing The SITRANS AID IQ software is capable of detect- ing most of the issues that Siemens gas analyzers may encounter over time by monitoring detector sensitivity, light source intensity, measurement chamber contamination, chopper frequency and other parameters. A typical example of what it tracks is ageing of the light source in Siemens NDIR analyzers (ULTRAMAT 6 and 7). When the intensity of the light reaches a critical range,
Fig. 1: Health status of different analyzers at a glance without any effort to evaluate where an action is required.
signifying this will likely affect performance in the near future, the software alerts the user in good time that repair or replacement is becoming necessary, leaving enough time to take action. Without this information, the problem would either go unnoticed until the instrument has stopped measuring or a light source would be replaced too soon. Other examples of issues that the software tool detects are aging of the electronics board, optical path impairment of the ULTRAMAT 6 and 7 analyzers caused by contamination or leakage, and diminished sensitivity of the microfl ow sensor in Siemens oxygen analyzers (OXYMAT 6 and 7). All in all, SITRANS AID IQ identifi es 75% of the reasons why an analyzer has to be sent to a repair center. In other words, it helps to avoid most of the unforeseen maintenance events that occur, and thus the sudden and unexpected need for technical staff to intervene.
Technical architecture and interface
The SITRANS AID IQ software supports a growing range of Siemens gas analyzers and is perfectly suited to optimize the operability even of older installations. Its V1.0 release is compatible with SIPROCESS GA700, OXYMAT 6/61/64, ULTRAMAT 6, OXYMAT/ULTRAMAT 6 and ULTRAMAT 23. Apart
from the robust, low-maintenance Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 controller to run the software and a communication module, no extra hardware is required. The controller uses Modbus TCP and/or ELAN to read the data of up to ten gas analyzers that are connected by either ethernet or, option- ally, by wireless or remote access via a router.
Setting up and expanding a network is straight- forward thanks to the standard interfaces and plug & play installation. Further controllers can be integrated to monitor additional instruments. It is also possible to integrate the controller into an existing analyzer system, provided there is enough space. The SITRANS AID IQ software can be operated from any laptop or from an optional Siemens HMI touch panel without the need to install software.
The Overview window of the SITRANS AID IQ soft- ware lists all connected gas analyzers, revealing each instrument’s bus address, hardware and soft- ware revisions, as well as – most importantly – its health status according to the NAMUR NE 107 standard, reported as either “normal”, “check func- tion”, “maintenance required”, “out of specifi ca- tion” or “failure” (Fig. 1):
Selecting a gas analyzer listed here gives access to further information. The Identifi er window states all the instrument’s
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