FEATURE DRIVES, CONTROLS & TRANSMISSIONS
INVERTERS THAT LOOK AFTER THEMSELVES and your plant equipment
maintenance team will receive timely warnings of bearing or belt wear. It is also possible to go further,
extending those diagnostics capabilities and bringing predictive maintenance in line with the digitisation of manufacturing, aligning it with the goals of Industry 4.0. Mitsubishi Electric, for example, has integrated its Smart Condition Monitoring (SCM) technology into its inverters and is so taking the concept of drive-based condition monitoring to the next level. The pre-configured, plug-and-play
solution includes the FAG SmartCheck vibration sensor from e-F@ctory Alliance partner Schaeffler and combines it with the PLC functionality integrated within the drive to provide a complete drive- based solution for predictive maintenance. This integrated approach to monitoring
by Wayne Turtill, product manager Drives and Servos, Mitsubishi Electric W
hatever industry you’re in, unscheduled downtime can be one
of the biggest headaches. From an unexpected stoppage on a conveyor line to a jammed pump in a water treatment works, the impact on productivity or service availability can be felt throughout an organisation. Then there is the associated cost of fixing the problem, all of which can quickly hit profitability, as well as damaging a company’s reputation. Of course - automation products have
long been able to help in this regard: Variable speed drives (VSDs) for example have always monitored parameters such as motor current and output torque, providing early warnings of impending problems with rotating plant equipment and machinery. Today’s information-rich VSD displays
and connectivity to HMIs mean that error codes are presented with meaningful troubleshooting information, so that engineers no longer have go running for manuals to diagnose and rectify a fault. Going beyond routine fault codes
current technology offers significant advances in plant monitoring and diagnostics, taking the uncertainty out of maintenance to help make unscheduled downtime a thing of the past. In particular they can play a key role in moving from a regime of preventative maintenance to one of more cost- effective predictive maintenance. The intelligent functionality of modern VSDs provides all the tools that are
32 APRIL 2019 | FACTORY EQUIPMENT
needed to reduce unplanned downtime, detecting problems in the likes of bearings, motors, pumps, fans and conveyors – as well as in the drives themselves – before they cause a failure. With early warnings of impending failure and pro-active requests for servicing, engineering teams can make informed decisions about when to schedule any necessary maintenance. Consider, for example, a drive
controlling the motor on a conveyor line. Unscheduled stoppages on conveyors that then halt the whole production line can be devastating for many businesses, with downtime frequently costing thousands or even tens of thousands of pounds per minute but many of the typical problems that will halt a conveyor line are easy to detect within the drive. Common issues such as worn bearings for example cause friction and can be detected by a higher output current that is needed to overcome the increased load. Conversely, a decrease in load – suggestive of wear in drive belts – can also be detected. Such diagnostics are simple to set up,
requiring minimal adjustment to parameters. Different levels of monitoring and alarms can be defined to meet individual requirements, with local display on the drive itself or an HMI, or remote monitoring over a network. In our conveyor example, all that needs to be defined are upper and lower limits for motor output current and the
Mitsubishi Electric’s variable speed drives provide all the tools that are needed to reduce unplanned downtime
the health of individual assets combines local traffic-light indication of the asset through red, amber and green status lights on the installed SmartCheck sensor with more detailed analysis performed by the drive. Within the VSD, operating temperature and vibration feedback from the SmartCheck sensor is combined with the monitoring of a full range of other external parameters, including speed, voltage and current information, with detailed diagnoses highlighted on the drive’s integrated display. In the event of a change of state that
indicates a deterioration of operating conditions or a likely impending failure, the system will display practical recommended measures to take locally via clear text messages or by forwarding them to higher-level systems. This means that maintenance personnel do not always need special experience or diagnostics expertise to be able to identify faults directly, take the necessary measures and schedule maintenance work as required. As a result, downtime is minimised and
system availability maximised – which in turn leads to further cost reductions. The net result is that system maintenance for critical assets can be planned in advance, resulting in a longer service life. We can see then, that modern variable
speed drives can make huge contributions toward monitoring the health of plant assets and minimising the risk of unscheduled downtime.
Mitsubishi Electric
www.gb.mitsubishielectric.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46
