Plant Services - November 2007 - (Page 43)

ManageMent Personnel Keyhole view Assault on batteries Mobiles can be used to track temperature, vibration, voltage and electric power of devices such as motors, lighting, HVAC and generating equipment, both for power consumption and condition monitoring purposes. “Energy usage evaluation and condition monitoring for electric machines are important in industry for overall energy savings,” says Gary Ambrosio, CEO, Sensicast Systems (www.sensicast.com). “Traditionally, these functions are used only for large motors in costly wired systems using communication cables and various types of sensors.” Expanded condition monitoring of less-critical assets calls for easily installed, low-cost wireless sensors for temperature, power and vibration, but no one wants to be changing batteries constantly. So sensor and software companies have developed interesting alternative approaches to extending battery life or eliminating batteries altogether. Batteries in traditional Wi-Fi devices have a useable life of only a few days. Through partnership with GainSpan, Sensicast has developed a power management system-on-achip that allows its Wi-Fi sensor nodes to operate for years on a single battery. “Removing the data cable often only solves half the problem, which isn’t solving anything at all,” says Niek Van Dierdonck, vice president of strategy and product management, GreenPeak (www.greenpeak.com). “Batteries are a curse. When they fail, they must be replaced, and they usually go down before they are noticed.” Alternatives include solar power where the lighting is good or vibration where it’s available, such as rotating equipment. But these power sources are constant and low. “They don’t deliver power the way you need it,” Van Dierdonck says, “a peak for transmission, low level when sleeping.” His company has worked on the communication system to shave peaks by spreading the communication tasks over time. “We want to do this at a price point where it makes sense to add a lot of sensors,” he adds, “not just as an alternative to wired systems, but new applications where wire would be too costly or impractical.” If more power is needed, MIT researchers recently demonstrated a practical method for wireless power transfer using magnetically coupled resonance (http://web.mit.edu/news office/2007/wireless-0607.html). Figure 3. Part of the challenge for sophisticated applications is making the best use of the limited display space on an industrial handheld. PC power and the Web When mobiles are packed with enough power to run multiple applications and support Internet browsing, they easily can transcend any preconceptions that they’re simply for streamlining traditional maintenance processes. Technicians can process data, notify coworkers, access documentation, refer to current procedures, consult experts, collaborate on troubleshooting, generate reports, have system problems diagnosed, order parts, share images and send e-mail to their spouses that they’ll be home for dinner, all from the same device. For example, Infor partnered with Blue Dot Solutions to produce Infor EAM Advanced Mobile, a mobile infrastructure that supports functionality including GIS and GPS, RFID, multi-dimensional barcode reading, and integration with advanced calibration systems. Also, it supports communication with backend enterprise systems such as ERP and human resources. The Blue Dot partnership provides a multichannel access gateway (MAG) to support multiple applications. It enables access to mobile operations with Infor EAM, other Infor products or other existing systems in the enterprise. Infor says November 2007 AMERICAN INGENUITY DISCOVER W W W.DISCOVERCURTIS.COM ©2007 Curtis-Toledo, Inc. 17639_2 07 CTGNL GENRL American.indd www.PLANTSERVICES.com 1 9/19/07 43 7:53:52 http://www.sensicast.com http://www.greenpeak.com http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/wireless-0607.html http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/wireless-0607.html http://www.discovercurtis.com http://www.discovercurtis.com http://www.PLANTSERVICES.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Plant Services - November 2007

Plant Services - November 2007 Contents New Tools Letters Let Us Know Where to Put the Gas Up and Running How are you Fighting Crisis? What Works Why is the Best Practice Transfer so Hard? Who are you Going to Call? Chained to Power Mobile Mindset Making Money in the Lube Lab Grabbing a Moving Target Bagging the BTUs Keeping Mellow Preserving Health and Safety The Power of Reliability Excellence

Plant Services - November 2007

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