New Reliability System Provides Flexible Equipment Monitoring

Wireless remote sensor technology is an attractive solution for many plant and reliability managers when it comes to retrieving data from equipment and keeping networking costs low. The big splash in this category was done back in 2016 when ABB (Zurich, www.abb.com) released the Ability wireless sensor  — Remote Condition Monitoring for Low-Voltage Motors — with its ability to be affixed directly motors and provide a range of vibration data.

Move to 2018 and many other players have stepped in to grab market share with similar solutions. One such player is Petasense (San Jose, www.petasense.com) and the company recently released the Asset Reliability & Optimization (ARO) System that includes plug-and-play industrial sensors, ARO Cloud, and web and mobile applications.

According to Petasense, the new “ARO System and clients can now monitor a more extensive set of assets like valves, electrical panels and steam traps. They can also gain deeper insights into the performance of their rotating assets by correlating vibration with other sensor inputs such as temperature, running speed and current.”

“Just like the diagnosis of human health requires an evaluation of multiple parameters like cholesterol levels, blood pressure and so on, similarly a complete understanding of machine health requires an evaluation of multiple sensor inputs,” adds Abhinav Khushraj, co-founder of Petasense.

Similar to the ABB Ability sensor, the cloud component from Petasense can deliver alerts and notifications for real-time plant floor events. The Petasense ARO Cloud provides multi-parametric sensor data visualization and analytics, powered by machine learning — see OSIsoft and Petasense Create Partnership for Machine Health Solutions.

The system can also integrate with external systems like data historians and Enterprise Asset Management platforms (EAM) using HTTP and AMQP protocols.

Another recent release from Petasense is Transmitter, a wireless plug-and-play I/O device that connects to most 4-20 mA or 0-30V industrial sensors and securely sends data to the ARO Cloud over WiFi. Additionally, it has launched several sensors to work with the communication device including vibration, temperature, current, ultrasound and pressure.

For a deeper dive into the technology and approach behind their software, see the video below: