Breakthrough for the monitoring of your equipment

Much is being talked about online monitoring.

This article describes a solution which adds a decisive level of data: sensor data taken directly on the critical points of the asset.

SENSeOR: The sensing technology used is characterized by providing sensors which are passive (no local energy source required), wireless and work in extreme environments. Let’s look at a few applications:

• Energy Market assets cause blackouts and security issues. Now, monitoring of temperature on connection-points provides concise information: increasing temperature indicates increasing electrical losses – i.e. is a perfect proactive indicator and can such be used to plan a maintenance intervention – or to reduce load before damage is caused.
• A high percentage of naval motor problems stem from the crank-shaft bearings. If not detected quickly, huge damage is the result. By now we have shipped more than 50.000 sensors which are installed on such bearings.
• Monitoring the temperature on a hydrodynamic rotating coupler allows to adapt the load – i.e. get the maximum out of the coupler while ensuring security.
• Goods moving through pass-through ovens (ex. Professional cooking) or cleaning machines (ex. Sterilization) typically rely on statistical data. Now, by putting a sensor in the moving good, we can achieve optimal quality and maximum throughput.

The sensing technology used here is referred to as Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) technology.  But,  mature, deployable SAW technology based solutions need to fulfill all requirements. To illustrate this, let’s use an application for monitoring of High/Medium-Voltage Switchgear: for such application, IEC62271/ CISPR11 define the maximum radiated emission level to be 57 dBµV/m at 3m. Today the only solution working reliably and certified at this level is the solution from SENSeOR. Further, such sensors must not impact the dielectric properties of the equipment. Today the only such sensors to be certified for its dielectric as well as partial discharge properties are the sensors from SENSeOR.

Then, a monitoring solution should ideally be perfect for use as an economic standalone solution – or, integrate optimally within an existing monitoring infrastructure – even as retrofit. SENSeOR’s economic solution offers a well differentiated IOT platform.

On top of 24/7 temperature monitoring, it allows the monitoring of Partial Discharge activity – and, via wired conventional sensors, ambient temperature, humidity, load, other parameters – or even add RFID-based tags and sensors. Its multi-parameter alarming engine, coupled with local data storage, provides for simple and effective situation and trends analysis.