Sign in or Register

Fictron Industrial Supplies Sdn Bhd
No. 7 & 7A,
Jalan Tiara, Tiara Square,
Taman Perindustrian Sime UEP,
47600 Subang Jaya,
Selangor, Malaysia.
+603-8023 9829
+603-8023 7089
Fictron Industrial
Automation Pte Ltd

140 Paya Lebar Road, #03-01,
AZ @ Paya Lebar 409015,
Singapore.
+65 31388976
sg.sales@fictron.com

Converging the Old and New

18 Mar 2019
Converging the Old and New
View Full Size
As factories become more updated and coordinated than ever before, long standing legacy equipment can be overshadowed by new, high tech machines. These future-facing industrial assets are normally readily obtainable to the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) — a new technology paradigm that is aiding manufacturers improve competitiveness, increase profitability and reduce downtime through interconnectivity and data collection.
 
Overhauling old methods for present alternatives may seem idyllic, but this could be far too costly and unfeasible for most businesses in the US. Also, when you consider the great number of time necessary to source new parts, uninstall current equipment and re-train employees, the time investment alone is sufficient to put businesses off the rip-and-replace approach.
 
This begs the question — how does legacy equipment fit into Industry 4.0? Put simply, to control the benefits of new technology, factories must have an IIoT ecosystem that integrates with legacy assets.
 
The problem doesn’t lie with the age of present equipment, but the skills of workers. Many of the professionals in running and maintaining legacy equipment are retiring, leaving younger workers to face the struggle of working with both old and new technology. But this, in itself, isn’t adequate reason to get rid of old areas if they are working optimally. Even broken obsolete parts can be replaced with the help of the right obsolete parts supplier.
 
Ironically, new technology is aiding older equipment by extending its lifespan through retrofit sensors and condition monitoring. This software means the health of assets can be tracked accurately, allowing predictive maintenance schedules to be put in place.
 
Connecting legacy machines to the IIoT is challenging, but not impossible. Retrofit, or ‘wrap-and-extend’ solutions involve using third party, IoT-ready products such as IoT gateways, OPC servers and sensors. This out-of-the-box connectivity can be installed with no interruption to uptime.
 
This approach can be completely customized to the business’s needs, meaning only useful sensors are put in place. Compare this with buying brand new equipment, which would include hundreds of inbuild sensors that aren’t all required.
 
These retrofit sensors can track details such as temperature and vibration, to provide valuable insight, with the help of software, into the current condition and the next condition of a part.
 
For example, a high temperature could give engineers with a sophisticated warning of lubrication breakdown. Similarly, by monitoring the vibration spectrum for change, it is possible to discover and monitor signs of wear, by comparing to baseline values. A skilled vibration analyst can notice the presence of a bearing defect, a damaged impeller blade and much more.
 
By giving this data to the cloud, it can join the other IIoT data developed by the internal sensors of new machines. Software can then parse this collection of data, with little discrimination regarding whether this data came from a new or old part.
 
Most factories will take a phased approach to employing this third-party technology. We’ll see businesses gather the benefits of tackling difficult legacy equipment first, and with this success, retrofit condition monitoring programs can then be rolled out to other legacy equipment progressively over time.
 
After tackling the troubled assets, high-value, critical and hard-to-reach legacy assets can then profit from retrofit condition monitoring too.
 
Many legacy machines have been built to last, and this is definitely a positive. It’s good that businesses have the option to keep this equipment around, rather than be required to pay for pricey rip and replace schemes to overhaul run down systems.
 
New technology means the lifespan of this legacy equipment can be elongated even further through preventative maintenance. The message is clear — don’t exclude your legacy equipment from your IIoT infrastructure.



This article is originally posted on Tronserve.com

You have 0 items in you cart. Would you like to checkout now?
0 items
Switch to Mobile Version