March 2019

Smart Maintenance Management Focus March 2019 www.pwemag.co.uk Plant & Works Engineering | 21 before equipment failure. It is also possible to go further again, extending those diagnostics capabilities and bringing predictive maintenance in line with the digitisation of manufacturing, aligning it with the goals of Industry 4.0. Turtill highlights that Mitsubishi Electric, for example, has integrated its Smart Condition Monitoring (SCM) technology into its inverters and is so taking the concept of drive-based condition monitoring to the next level. The pre-configured, plug-and-play solution includes the FAG SmartCheck vibration sensor from e-F@ctory Alliance partner Schaeffler and combines it with the PLC functionality integrated within the drive to provide a complete drive- based solution for predictive maintenance. This integrated approach to monitoring the health of individual assets combines local traffic-light indication of the asset through red, amber and green status lights on the installed SmartCheck sensor with more detailed analysis performed by the drive. Within the VSD, operating temperature and vibration feedback from the SmartCheck sensor is combined with the monitoring of a full range of other external parameters, including speed, voltage and current information, with detailed diagnoses highlighted on the drive’s integrated display. In the event of a change of state that indicates a deterioration of operating conditions or a likely impending failure, the system will display practical recommended measures to talk locally via clear text messages or by forwarding them to higher-level systems. This means that maintenance personnel do not always need special experience or diagnostics expertise to be able to identify faults directly, take the necessary measures and schedule maintenance work as required. As a result, downtime is minimised and system availability maximised – which in turn leads to further cost reductions. The net result is that system maintenance for critical assets can be planned in advance, resulting in a longer service life. We can see then, that modern variable speed drives can make huge contributions toward monitoring the health of plant assets and minimising the risk of unscheduled downtime. For further information please visit: gb3a.mitsubishielectric.com performance, offering dedicated diagnostics functions for the likes of fan and pump applications. For example, Wayne Turtill, product manager for Drives and Servos at Mitsubishi Electric explains that its FR-F800 series offers a ‘cleaning function’ (de-ragging), provides timely warning of the build up of dirt and foreign matter on the impellers of fans and pumps. Left unchecked, this build up will eventually stop the fan or pump motor completely and need an engineer to access the equipment to clean it, however, the drive is capable of running routines that solve the problem, not just highlight it. With the cleaning function, this build up of dirt can be removed by repeating forward/reverse rotation and stopping the motor, eliminating costly extended downtime. The function can be enabled manually on the display of an alarm or can be started automatically when an overload is detected. If the process clears the problem, the load characteristics return to normal and operation can continue. If the problem isn’t cleared, an alarm can be triggered to alert the maintenance team, again giving them time to deal with the issue as and when is convenient, WEN .uk .co .ibhs www M ipesW lean ub&C cr ,S ed tur xeT Y -DUT Y HEAV olution ySa 1lSpr Y WER SPRA PO ipesWio tB bsorben SuperA CEAF TI- UL SUR , PO15 5SF th E st or a tion here: sw ac ee in it S .uk (014 o.c .ibhs ww eethefull | w S egen S,yaW 737 89) 570 | Unit 34 Brunel ig Wipes B o.uk/ s.c w.ibh ww rangeonline PROVIDING PRACTICAL ENGINEERING SKILLS TRAINING FOR INDUSTRY Technical Training Solutions Est 1980 t: 01634 731 470 e: tech.training@zen.co.uk www. technicaltrainingsolutions.co.uk