PRODUCT NEWS
DIGITALISING INDUSTRIAL PUMPS
INSYS
HOW INDUSTRIAL ROUTERS CAN HELP
MONITOR PUMP SYSTEMS
Pumps use 20 per cent of the world’s energy
and can contribute to up to 50 per cent of a
plant’s energy consumption. Monitoring and
using pumps more effectively are beneficial
ways of reducing power usage and overheads.
Here Anna Wels, Vice President Market Unit
icom for industrial router manufacturer INSYS,
explains how industrial routers can be used to
help monitor and optimise pumps.
Manufacturers and operators understand
that pumps are central to a large amount
of applications. A faulty pump can have
disastrous effects, which can halt entire
production lines or have dire consequences on
the surrounding environment. As such, having
an effective pump monitoring system is key.
However, while data collection has become
relatively inexpensive, transmitting it via
mobile connections, storing it and analysing
it can prove costly. Being able to bring the
analysis closer to the application can reduce
costs and condense time to action. This sort of
application is called edge computing; where
computations are performed on distributed
device nodes before they are transmitted.
Implementing edge computing is a great
way of streamlining processes, regardless of
whether it is in a large facility or a smaller,
isolated location.
BEARING THE RAIN
Location can also cause a number of impacts
on the system in question. For instance, sewer
and rainwater systems can easily overflow
during heavy rain, which can create hazardous
situations and damage water treatment
facilities. To prevent this, at some facilities in
Germany, for instance, excess sewer water is
syphoned out of the main water system into
overflow basins during heavy rain periods. The
basins hold the water and then pump it back
into the system once the rain has stopped.
While this system decreases the stress on water
treatment facilities, it does pose some issues.
The basins are in isolated remote locations,
meaning that information must be transmitted
to a central location before instructions can be
issued, sometimes delaying response times.
Maintenance is also difficult, because crews
must travel long distances to reach the
location. It is imperative that the pumps are
rigorously monitored, as their failure could
cause high levels of environmental damage.
In order to fix these issues, the national
German water board turned to INSYS icom. to a supervisory control and data acquisition
(SCADA) system that analyses the data.
Industrial routers can be installed with
monitoring apps that can analyse data and
be programmed to send commands to the
system or to remote locations if certain criteria
are met. The router, therefore, can securely
send data generated by the system to a central
location and can also carry out on site analysis. However, many traditional SCADA systems
are remote, meaning that there is a delay
between the data being sent and the analysis
providing insight. Industrial routers now have
the processing power to use edge computing
functions. This means that maintenance teams
or SCADA systems can be directly notified
when the health of a system starts to decline,
allowing them to act well before the situation
becomes critical. It is also more cost effective
because less data has to be transmitted due to
processing the raw data closer to the point of
creation.
MULTIPLE PUMP MONITORING
Most systems, however, don’t simply have a
small number of pumps on site, but are instead
larger structures with many pumps working in
different conditions. In these situations, more
process control and optimisation is required to
ensure that pumps are running smoothly and
efficiently.
Many centrifugal pumps are known to have
up to 30 per cent overcapacity in power
compared to the required levels for their
application, yet this excess of power leads to
wasted energy. At the same time the cost of
downtime in manufacturing environments is
continuing to grow. In fact, market analysts
Accruent report that unplanned downtime
costs industrial manufacturers an estimated
$50 billion each year.
As such, it is vital for plant operators to have
systems in place that can monitor pumps to
ensure they are running optimally as well as
supplying information to avoid unplanned
downtime. These days, most pumps are
equipped with smart sensors that collect
information from the pump and then relay it
Pumps are a crucial part of many industrial
and critical infrastructure systems and secure
access is vital. Being able to securely monitor
them using routers instead of relying solely
on remote SCADA systems can simplify the
process of optimisation and control. Industrial
routers are a flexible solution to this challenge
as they can be adapted to be used in both
industrial production and service systems to
great effect.
ote access, while protecting vital assets.
So, whether you are thinking of kick-starting
your digitalisation initiative or are looking to
implement more edge computing applications
to increase the agility of your pump systems,
the answer could be closer to your pump than
you think.
www.insys-icom.com
Issue 42 PECM
117