From Reactive to Condition Monitoring

This article "How PepsiCo Broke Free from a Reactive Maintenance Cycle" in the August 24, 2023 issue of ReliablePlant Digital magazine is a good read on the experience of the Doritos plant in United Kingdom with reactive maintenance.

It tells of the plant's experience with reactive maintenance and why they had to ditch this and changed over to condition monitoring.

If you are looking for a vibration monitoring system, process monitoring system and vibration sensors please drop us a line at sales@vibration.company.

Better Option to the Traditional PLC

The use of Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) is a popular method of industrial monitoring even though it was first created in the 1960s.

There are many advantages to using PLC such as lower cost, familiarity, mature product, versatility and easy to troubleshoot. However, PLC drawbacks can include less capacity to handle big data, proprietary software and vulnerable to EMI.

The rise of Industry 4.0 avails users to the power of IoT, cloud computing and analytics, AI and machine learning to vastly improve the operations of production facilities. In order to avail ourselves of this new technology we would need to look for more powerful monitoring solutions, much more powerful than what the old PLC technology can offer.

For the purpose of vibration monitoring of rotating machinery a PLC typically allows only for monitoring of overall trend using current sensors (popularly known as 4-20 mA vibration transmitters).

To make use of the power of big data we would need to be able to collect FFT spectrums through the use of a DAQ that is connected to voltage sensors such as our Hansford Sensors, KEMO or Wilcoxon Sensing Technologies range of industrial vibration accelerometers. This big data can then be used for machine learning if we want to move towards the use of AI to predict machine failure.

The use of a DAQ allows the user to send the data to a cloud storage, send alarm warnings and run their own proprietary software. In this way the user is not held hostage to an external software vendor who offers hardware at a low cost but software at a high cost.

If you are a System Integrator or Enduser who is keen to move towards a more powerful DAQ solution that is open source, does not tie you to a proprietary software and offers good pricing to replace the traditional PLC please contact us at sales@vibration.company for more information.

For the suitable System Integrator we can make available a developer's kit to allow you to be familiar and gain confidence in our solution.

Low Noise Vibration Sensors

Kemo's range of IEPE and piezoelectric accelerometers are targeted at customers looking for low noise sensors and cables for effective monitoring of key assets or carrying out test and measurement in the lab or production floor.

Kemo's vibration sensors features titanium bodies for low mass, fully welded construction, industry standard connectors and different mounting methods.

Kemo's vibration accelerometers use a shear plate design to minimize base strain which can cause significant errors during broad band vibration measurement as well as reduce issues such as cross axis error.

Visit the official Kemo website here. Contact us for a quote at sales@vibration.company.