Collaboration enhances automated machine monitoring

A new wireless sensor has been developed as part of a condition monitoring system for improving rotating equipment performance programs, on a scale previously considered to be uneconomical.

SKF has teamed up with connectivity specialists LumenRadio to create the new wireless monitoring system, measuring vibration and temperature. The SKF Enlight Collect IMx-1 system combines the company’s knowledge in machine health monitoring with LumenRadio’s patented network technology.

LumenRadio began by supplying the professional lighting sector with products used to remotely monitor and control sophisticated light shows. The company has since expanded into Internet of Things applications in heating, ventilation and air conditioning and heavy industrial applications.

When fitted to rotating equipment, SKF's Enlight Collect IMx-1 system is said to economically automate vibration data collection. Predictive maintenance programs can be expanded with data captured more often, which aims to increase defect detection rates and reduce costly unplanned machine shutdowns.

The collaboration with LumenRadio allows SKF to employ its MiraOS operating system, which aims to provide a number of benefits with wireless communication, such as:

• A mesh network protocol that enables sensors to exchange data, navigating around obstacles such as pipework and liquid storage tanks, instead of trying to punch through them.
• LumenRadio’s patented cognitive co-existence technique scans the radio spectrum and switches frequencies to avoid busy channels and overcome interference.
• The collaboration aims to increase radio reliability and reduce retransmissions leading to reduced power consumption of the battery in a small device.
• The technology provides high precision time stamping of data, while also minimising energy usage by knowing exactly when to switch the radio on and off. This means the sensor can work on a single battery for many years, in tough wireless environments such as paper mills, asserts SKF.

The company further explains that the self-forming sensor network requires no existing infrastructure, like WiFi, and can be deployed on a scale large enough to cover the monitoring points of so-called ‘walk-arounds’. Precise timestamping of vibration data enables wider analysis capabilities in the company’s efforts to provide reliable rotation as a service.

With this system, plus cloud-based support, SKF aims to help customers improve rotating equipment performance through faster, effective reporting on the state of components and assets.