New-Tech Europe | June 2017

Intelligent wiring brings data transparency to the plant

Heribert Einwag

Today’s requirements Ever-growing cost pressure and increasingly tougher competition, internationalization and globalization affect engineering just like many other sectors. In the production and processing industries, these challenges increasingly throw operating costs under the spotlight, as machines are generally operated over decades rather than just a few years. As a result, operating costs quickly outweigh procurement costs: over an observation period of ten years, operating costs are often found to be already five to ten times higher than investment costs. Considering costs in their entirety To achieve a cost-efficient machine, machine builders and operators should therefore consider the costs incurred over the machine life cycle in their

life cycle of a machine is the cost of servicing and maintenance – and in the worst case, the costs of production downtimes. As a result, condition monitoring (or status monitoring) is becoming increasing important. This approach can not only ensure the reliable operation of the machine, but can also sometimes increase efficiency. The monitoring is based on recording the machine status at regular intervals or on a continual basis by measuring and analyzing physical parameters such as motor current, temperature, fill levels or ambient data. But in today’s competitive environment, it is usually no longer enough to simply react to faults. For just one machine, the costs of production downtime, troubleshooting and fault correction add up quickly. Predictive (or preventative) maintenance therefore plays an ever more important role in

entirety. This approach includes not just procurement and installation costs, but also energy costs. Reducing energy consumption is not just practical for commercial reasons, but also for compliance considerations: legal regulations are increasingly focusing on this subject. Furthermore, increasing energy efficiency protects available environmental resources. In order to achieve the aim of reducing energy consumption and increasing energy efficiency, the energy flows to the entire machine and the energy consumption in the individual machine parts and components should be recorded, analyzed and then optimized. An important instrument in this respect is a systematic power management system. Preventing downtimes Another considerable cost factor in the

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