July/August 2020

the track roller bearing. Due to the early detection of this irregularity, the site was able to schedule and perform the bearing replacement in good time and therefore prevent any unplanned downtime. Ageing legacy assets According to data collated by Sumitomo (SHI) Demag, there are approximately 15,000 injection moulding machines in the field in the UK. However, these are only being replaced at a rate of 650-700 new machines per year. This means that many injection moulders are still utilising ageing machines that arguably should have been traded in several years ago. This makes smart maintenance essential. covering both servicing and retiring equipment at the right time. A problem with driving an injection moulding machine ‘into the ground’ is that at some point the money spent on repairs can be of the same order as the cost of a new machine. Another risk is operating a machine that relies on obsolete parts - under EU law (at least), suppliers are required to ‘guarantee’ 10-year spare part availability. “It might sound obvious, but the single biggest thing users can do to ensure machine reliability and longevity is to carry out the service work highlighted in the instruction manual!”, says Managing Director Nigel Flowers. “This mainly centres on basic maintenance tasks, such as lubrication and changing fan filters. Such tasks are simple to perform but often overlooked, with dire consequences. Planned maintenance invariably has less impact on line efficiency than unscheduled downtime caused by a failing part.” The next step is to move to a more predictive approach. The optimum time to change a part is just before it fails: now, this is entirely possible. The latest injection moulding systems can alert users in advance to what maintenance needs to be carried out and what parts need to be replaced. According to Flowers, emerging technologies to further enhance machine reliability are on the horizon. RFID tags could potentially serve to assess health and performance. And Augmented Reality (AR) could be used in several ways to assist with machine support and diagnostics - for example, enabling in-house engineers to see what components are inside a cabinet without physically opening it. There is also scope for sharing machine data between suppliers and customers, providing security obstacles can be overcome. Connecting remote assets Companies are increasingly looking to connect remotely located assets for monitoring and control over the internet. However, often there is no local infrastructure to connect such assets to the internet. HMS Networks’ Anybus Wireless Bolt IoT targets this very situation, providing reliable cellular-based internet connectivity over NB- IoT and CAT-M1 for remote assets that are otherwise hard to reach and connect. Wireless Bolt IoT includes all elements needed to get stationary or mobile assets online over a cellular connection. It features a robust IP66/IP67 housing with UL NEMA 4X certificate for outdoor mounting, an integrated cellular antenna with a modem, a microcontroller and firewall. Virtual sensors What physical sensors cannot measure can often be done by using soft sensors – for example, combining multiple correlated parameters within formulae and using ‘nested calculations’. The latest version of Software AG’s TrendMiner extends these capabilities. The most important enhancements are improvements to OSIsoft PI integration, better analysis of operational performance and easy navigation through context items. “All companies have been hit by global disruption to buying patterns and supply chains. However, they can still make their process manufacturing more efficient and productive,” says General Manager Joan van de Wetering. predictive maintenance is a vital part of an enterprise’s digital transformation strategy.” Critical drives By installing SmartCheck condition monitoring devices on 58 critical drives, Schaeffler’s European Distribution Centre, one of Europe’s most modern logistics centres, has benefited from reduced unplanned downtime, reduced maintenance costs and increased machine availability. Inside the EDC Central are seven automated storage and retrieval systems, which continuously handle loads in various directions from storage racks with a height of around 38.5m. Any unplanned downtime due to bearing damage can affect the entire supply chain, but the bearings in the drives are subjected to severe loads during operation. Of the 3,000 drives at Kitzingen, 58 of the most critical are now monitored using SmartCheck. Of these, 51 are installed on spiral conveyors and lifting stations, where they monitor bearing vibration, temperature and speed. Seven others are installed on the drives of the storage and retrieval systems. The devices are connected in turn to the network, allowing local visualisation in the control room. After an operating period of around 18 months, one of the SmartChecks detected an irregular upward trend. The subsequent visual inspection carried out by local maintenance staff confirmed that grease had escaped from 18 | Plant & Works Engineering www.pwemag.co.uk July/August 2020 Maintenance Matters Focus on: Asset Management/Maintenance Software Cellular Internet connectivity for remote assets with the robust Anybus Wireless Bolt IoT