What does condition monitoring mean?
24 August 2022
Condition monitoring is the Swedish term for condition monitoring. This is about keeping track of operationally critical equipment.
Condition monitoring is the Swedish term for condition monitoring. This is about keeping track of operationally critical equipment. The idea is to prevent an unplanned stop before it happens.
Unplanned downtime in industry is often very costly and something you want to do everything you can to avoid. A stoppage can, for example, mean that you cannot produce anything while the stoppage is in progress, at the same time that employees need to receive their salaries and the entire facility must be kept alive.
In factories, the staff goes round and reads meters to make sure that these are within the correct limit value. Many times, however, this is neglected and it happens that meters are not read at all. This can mean that critical metrics are not discovered until it is already too late.
The connected factory enables condition monitoring
If you have a strategy for Industry 4.0 and actively want to work with IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things), then SenseNode is a good alternative. Here you connect all critical meters directly to the cloud service and set both operating and energy monitoring at the facility.
SenseNode is a smart system that warns before a critical machine stops. Then you can take measures while the machine is still running and thus avoid the entire process stopping.
Example of condition monitoring
Condition monitoring is also very much about monitoring the right data. It may involve looking at several different parameters for a machine and then drawing conclusions based on these. Vibrations are an example. A machine may be able to handle vibrations to some extent. But when the vibrations become too great, it means that something is wrong.
Heat development is another example. Often it is precisely the development of heat that indicates that a machine is not doing well. When that value rises and exceeds its limit values, it needs an alarm.
Condition monitoring can help indicate when maintenance needs to be performed. By continuously keeping track of how the production resources are performing, you can simplify planning and save money.
Summary
Condition monitoring is about keeping track of your machines and other critical resources, with the aim of identifying any deviations in good time. Then you can carry out maintenance on your machines, instead of suffering a stoppage later on, which will definitely cost money.
By digitizing your production and connecting your meters to the cloud, you can monitor your machines in real time. Intelligent systems can look at several different parameters and make trade-offs. It is possible to identify risks at a very early stage, long before an individual meter shows values outside a limit value.
A stop can be devastating. Entire production facilities can come to a standstill with large costs as a result. Therefore, it is well worth investing a few thousand Swedish kroner per month to be able to work with predictive maintenance instead.
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