Solely a decade in the past, I navigated my automobile rides with paper maps. In the present day, it’s onerous to think about pulling out a paper map to manually work out instructions to my vacation spot. I’ve already made this transition from paper maps to digital ones however many industrial workflows nonetheless depend on paper.

From Paper to Digital Methods

Technicians in an industrial plant usually gather the working circumstances of pumps, motors, conveyors and pipes manually, usually on paper. A technician information these measurements after which manually enters the information into a company ERP system or asset administration system. This has been essentially the most price efficient methodology for accumulating non-control information but it surely wants to vary. In the identical method that I left behind paper maps,  industrial operations will depart behind paper situation monitoring as effectively. Let’s check out the drivers behind this transition. 

This transition from paper techniques to related digital techniques is going on. Let’s take into account the next motivators:

• In paper techniques personnel should go into hazardous areas to gather situation measurements.
• The decrease price of wi-fi measurement techniques means decrease prices to observe for vibration, temperature and different circumstances.
• With out the necessity to bodily go to every measurement system, digital techniques could make as many readings as wanted.
• Linked digital techniques allow predictive upkeep, sooner course of optimization and faster response to potential dangers.

These issues and others are making it financially useful to put money into the know-how wanted. Subsequent we’ll discover the know-how concerned in these new related situation monitoring techniques.

The Linked Situation Monitoring System

The rest of this text we’ll discuss this digital system because the related situation monitoring system. First, this technique is related. It’s related to whoever wants the knowledge. Extra on this a bit later.  The opposite a part of the system is the situation monitoring side which incorporates the sensors and the appliance. On the proper you may see how these 3 components work collectively to maneuver info from property to the choice makers. 

Within the following examples you’ll see how two totally different use instances accomplish these 3 components in a different way based mostly on necessities. The primary instance is in a refinery or chemical plant and the second is in a subject web site like a tank farm or an open pit mine.

Chemical Plant Instance:

 First let’s discover this technique in a chemical plant…

Open Pit Mine Instance:

Subsequent we’ll check out how situation monitoring may occur in an open pit mine.

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