Efficient and effective production is synonymous with the health of the production line .
control invertors , EMC filters , motion control for positioning and robots , are significantly higher in value than conventional electrical equipment and more complex . Increases in operational leakage current above the norm ( design level ), indicate a change in electrical insulation quality e . g . a developing fault in electrical equipment and cables .
Periodic electrical inspections , including simple insulation tests carried out with the production line shutdown give a basic snapshot of the electrical health . They do not reflect what is happening when the production line is running or between tests .
If we checked the leakage current flowing in the main protective conductor during production line operation , this would be the sum of all the individual leakage currents associated with the production line , excluding any currents leaking to earth via other paths / metal work etc . Questions to ask : Is this value normal ? Is it higher or lower than last week , yesterday or has it just increased by 25 % in the last few minutes ? What is the distribution of the leakage current associated with individual manufacturing cells , robots ? Is there a developing problem with one of the cells , which will result in a protection device tripping , leading to a partial or complete production stoppage ? Spot checks of this nature have limited value in the production environment .
Continuous monitoring of leakage currents at critical points within a production line and or at manufacturing cell level , enable the identification of trends and consequently early warning of developing faults . This approach ( condition monitoring ) has recognised cost benefits within the modern and well managed production environment moving from a reactive ( fix it when its broke approach ) to managed intervention ( red flag – plan to check and repair as appropriate ).
Intelligent production line management and monitoring
Developments in predictive maintenance , associated with shared data , IIoT , ML , AI ( Industry 4 ) at the top end , are enablers for high level management and control through condition monitoring and installation forecasting regarding future installation behaviour . Existing production line automation may not fully embrace the Industry 4 benefits , without major upgrades to hardware and software .
Product developments such the e . Guard residual current monitoring system from Doepke , enable the adoption of a fully scalable bundle , with 5 levels of performance :
Basic Level 1 , using free Doepke software enabling clear visualisation of the complex leakage currents within a system , offering evaluation , and monitoring of < 20 RCMs on a PC , plus alarm email messaging .
Moving through the levels adds additional
features e . g . Level 5 – bespoke software incorporating machine learning , customer meta data , hyperparameters , developed in conjunction with the Customer ’ s Engineering and IT project team .
Conclusion
e . Guard permanently monitors the residual currents in an electrical installation and therefore offers comprehensive surveillance of their status . Smart residual current sensors positioned at critical points in the system , manufacturing cells and or items of equipment , enable the early identification of issues within specific locations .
This results in timely and planned intervention by electrical staff to conduct essential checks and repairs . The aim , reduce downtown , catastrophic equipment failures and associated production line losses . For further information please contact Doepke on sales @ doepke . co . uk .
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