Understanding Machine Diagnostics and Remote Monitoring

1
Understanding Machine Diagnostics and Remote
Monitoring
Managing machine health and ensuring sustainable
asset performance is an important control
objective in manufacturing environments. In both
discreet and process-based manufacturing
industries, net plant productivity, operational
costs, and return on assets (ROA) depend on how
well the available assets are utilized. This
makes monitoring and diagnosing faults in all
available assets a high priority for maintenance
teams. This article will cover what machine
diagnostics are and how remote monitoring enables
maintenance teams to track machine conditions,
detect existing or impending faults, isolate the
root cause, and initiate procedures to restore
machine health.
What is Machine Diagnostic? Machine diagnostics
is an equipment control measure that focuses on
tracking machine conditions and detecting faults
that can lead to machine breakdown. The process
includes fault detection, followed by root cause
analysis. Machine diagnostics is critical in
rotating machinery that operates round-the-clock
and is essential for undisrupted production in a
manufacturing environment. Diagnostic data is
collected with the help of various offline and
online techniques, depending upon the scope of
the maintenance. This data is then analyzed using
methods like high-resolution spectral analysis,
wavelet analysis or transform, Fast Fourier
Transform (FFT), Wigner-Ville Distribution,
waveform analysis, etc. The analyzed data is used
to determine the root cause of faults and
recommend corrective actions to the maintenance
and operation teams. For instance, a boom
conveyor in a steel manufacturing plant can break
down due to faults in motors, pulleys, or
gearboxes. In a complex machine like this, it is
difficult to determine what could have caused
the breakdown and what kind of maintenance
activity is required. With
2
machine diagnostics, tri-axial vibration trends
of the boom conveyor can be monitored to
determine the root cause of machine breakdown.
What is Remote Monitoring? To make machine
diagnostics efficient and empower maintenance
teams with real-time data, machine health cant
be measured manually at sporadic intervals. There
needs to be a system of continuous monitoring
with complete data accessibility across the
connected enterprise. This is achievable through
remote monitoring of plant assets, using
IoT-enabled technologies. Remote monitoring
deploys one or multiple cloud-enabled solutions
to remotely monitor machine conditions. Machine
vibration data is collected in real time and
relayed via the cloud to a centralized
repository. Any anomalies in the machine
vibrations are analyzed and compared with
pre-defined specifications to determine whether a
fault exists or building up within the
equipment. The maintenance teams can get complete
visibility of machine health from any time,
anywhere facilitating a planned shift to the
predictive maintenance approach.
To Know more about Machine Diagnostics and Remote
Monitoring https//www.infinite-uptime.com/unders
tanding-machine-diagnostics-and-remote-monitor
ing/