Predictive maintenance & condition monitoring


to reach the end of its operating life, so that it can be replaced before it leads to down time. Maintenance programmes to keep your devices and systems in good condition can be inferred based on diagnoses, statistics and predictions. This makes it possible to carry out inspections, repairs and maintenance in a quick and tailored way, and to plan servicing more reliably.


The SICK MPB 10 condition monitoring sensor measures vibration, shocks and temperature


when measured values exceed pre-configured thresholds. By considering previously disparate sets of data together, new insights are gained. As a result, changes in performance are detected early and maintenance work can be planned based on real data. Getting visibility to the data from your machines is just the first step to taking proactive, rather than reactive, service and maintenance decisions. You also need the connectivity, e.g. via an IoT gateway device, to deliver the data securely. Most importantly, you need the ability to integrate, visualise and analyse the data exactly where and when you need it. As part of SICK’s portfolio of digital services, the SICK Monitoring Box is an important platform that facilitates the integration and visualisation of sensor data for SICK customers. Although it only received its full global launch in October 2022, the Monitoring Box has already been tried and tested in all kinds of customer operations, from manufacturing and logistics to ports, transport systems or waste management facilities. The Monitoring Box is not actually a physical


box, but it enables plug-and-play condition monitoring to assist with preventative and predictive maintenance of sensors, machines, processes and plants. It can be adapted for all sorts of operating requirements to provide live status feedback and historical analysis supporting more effective maintenance and optimised efficiency. When enabled using pre-configured Apps


running on SICK smart sensors, the Monitoring Box provides transparent data monitoring through an intuitive, browser-based dashboard


for desktop or mobile devices. Configure the SICK Monitoring Box, and


transparent information about the health of your machines is just a few short steps away. Depending on your requirements, information such as operating hours, wear, temperature, energy usage or level of contamination, is turned into a valuable resource. Crucially, the Monitoring Box also affords


users the power to predict e.g. to help to calculate based on real measurement values when a particular component or device is going


UNEXPECTED INSIGHTS We are already seeing how early adopters are gaining unexpected insights. For example, using SICK’s monitoring app for its FTMg multifunctional flow sensor, a customer was able to identify energy cost savings from compressed air usage. By tracking consumption over time, compressed air energy losses were also easier to spot and correct. The visualised data made it easy for the production team to identify ways of making start-up and shutdown processes more energy efficient, improving compressor control and manage peak loads. In another example, thanks to a dedicated Monitoring App, packaging machine operatives receive fill-level warnings on their smart wristwatches. Data from SICK DT50/DT35 distance sensors to monitor the magazine stack height. Meanwhile, all the data collected can be visualised and monitored on a dashboard by management personnel. Instead of having to undertake routine inspections some operators have been deployed to other tasks, and the operation managed more efficiently.


The SICK Monitoring Box can be useful to monitor the status of sensors in inaccessible locations, where a physical inspection would otherwise be time-consuming and costly, e.g. as in the example of a LiDAR sensor on a ship to shore crane.


SWITCHING DATA TO VISUAL SICK customers have discovered that the ability to visualise data in the right format for them is the crucial part of the journey in transforming data into a powerful resource. Whether that is a series of graphs on a dashboard, or an overview of the machine itself, the principle is: the simpler the better. It could be as straightforward as managing a digital twin of all your assets along their entire life cycles. So, the SICK AssetHub presents a feature-rich and interactive view of all sensors, systems and other devices. Useful information that’s right at the fingertips of a maintenance operative from a smart phone. By unlocking real-time and historical data, maintenance and production teams are afforded added flexibility, adaptability and responsiveness that saves routine service and reactive maintenance hours and maximises machine availability. Accurate data can be integrated to deliver new insights and achieve transparency through visualisation. This new transparency could be enabled on a


smart watch of an operative patrolling a shop floor, just as much as it allows for easier monitoring by a management team in the company headquarters on the other side of the world. These systems therefore present a significant new opportunity to add commercial value through better condition monitoring and predictive maintenance, bringing benefits to overall operating efficiency.


The SICK FTMg flow sensor with Monitoring App enables real-time and historical analysis of compressed air data. Instrumentation Monthly October 2022 SICK www.sick.co.uk 25


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