DRIVES, CONTROLS & MOTORS FEATURE
Can smart sensors offer new revenue streams for OEMs?
The arrival of low-cost smart sensors can provide new opportunities for OEMs and machine designers as well as end-users, as ABB’s Steve Hughes explains
F
or project OEMs involved with the design and development of large- scale pumps, fans and compressors, using sensor technology to
monitor the health and performance of high voltage motors is part of their everyday offering. These large machines are used in critical applications and the need to know the temperature, vibration and noise levels is vital for consistent production uptime and personnel safety. However, vibration sensors and PT100 temperature sensors need to be hard-wired and come at a price. Because of this, applying the same type of technology to low voltage motors used by serial OEMs is cost prohibitive. All this changed in 2016 when ABB introduced the world’s first smart
sensor. The device was hailed as a breakthrough for those low power, yet critical applications, that would benefit from the visibility of knowing when a motor was likely to fail, so that preventive or timely maintenance could be applied – at a much lower cost. Since then, the smart sensor has gone
from strength to strength, with newer variants specifically designed to monitor the performance of pumps, and one also for mounted bearings.
A NEW GENERATION The latest generation of the device is ATEX, IECEx and NEC 500 certified, opening potential new revenue streams for OEMs serving hazardous area industries such as chemical, oil and gas, mining and even food and beverage. These are areas where the presence of flammable vapour, gases or dust requires special precautions to prevent the risk of explosion. A single failure or plant trip can result in substantial production losses. Therefore, any solution that has the potential to improve productivity and safety could make an important contribution to the financial performance of a plant. Those OEMs who provide service and support to their installed
Those OEMs who provide service and support to their installed motor-driven products can harness their domain expertise by using the smart sensor to track the performance of their product on behalf of the end-user
equipment lifetime, reduced energy and lower maintenance costs. Often OEM packages that are installed in hazardous or remote
locations can be difficult to inspect regularly and, therefore, may operate until failure. Featuring an extended battery life – up to three times longer than competing designs – and a robust sealed-for-life design, the latest smart sensor is rated to IP66/67 and can withstand high levels of vibration, corrosion and physical impact. Its use in hazardous environments, therefore, leads to greater uptime through condition-based maintenance. This brings lower servicing costs as maintenance can be planned according to actual needs rather than generic schedules. The end-user’s own maintenance engineers can focus on other critical tasks.
The Smart Sensor fits
directly to motors with no need for additional wiring
CONTINUOUSLY MONITORING An early example of a service contract and the impact smart sensors can have on a chemical plant is highlighted by Japanese chemical giant, Denka, across its Singapore plants. Here, ABB manages equipment failure risk and conducts or advises on preventive maintenance and repairs using a reliability index and urgency level. At one of Denka’s sites the company runs hundreds of motors, from 0.75 kilowatt (kW) to 160kW, operating pumps, compressors, blowers and pelletizers. Hundreds of smart sensors enable ABB to provide Denka with continuous monitoring of the operating and health parameters of process-critical motors, pumps and bearings, to keep production running 24/7: a service that could be readily handled by the application OEMs. The sensors reduce the hours spent manually
motor-driven products can harness their domain expertise by using the smart sensor to track the performance of their product on behalf of the end-user. Using a gateway, the data can be relayed, via the cloud, to an office-based web portal, from which the OEM can remotely track and trace the application’s performance. By offering this as a service contract, the OEM retains a link to its product and the end-user, allowing them to better support their client base by minimising downtime and building supplementary business. In short, condition monitoring can now be fully automated in hazardous area applications, improving production and maintenance efficiency, while leaving the end user with one less thing to worry about.
A SMART SOLUTION Another revenue stream is to simply include a smart sensor within the package, be it the motor or pump-set, and let the end-user self- monitor. This offers the reassurance for the end-user of extended
/ DESIGNSOLUTIONS
checking performance and gathering data while bringing new insight into the operating performance of the assets. A manual inspection would previously be carried out at three-month intervals. The trends that indicate a potential risk would be missed, with the possibility of catastrophic failure, a long downtime and expensive loss of production. The smart sensors proved their worth after only a few days in
operation when one detected a higher-than-normal vibration in a motor on a feed roller. ABB’s engineers, who were monitoring the motors, alerted the Denka maintenance team. Upon inspection they found a heavy build-up of sticky polymer and were able to clean it before it damaged the motor. In conclusion, the versatility and low cost of smart sensors has
widened the scope of applications that can benefit from remote monitoring, while providing OEMs with new ways in which they can add value for customers.
ABB
https://new.abb.com/uk
For more information about the ABB AbilityT Smart Sensor for hazardous areas, visit
http://bit.ly/3pis9SJ to download the e-book.
DESIGN SOLUTIONS | MARCH 2021 11
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