Condition Monitoring: functions and benefits

In the Industry 4.0 landscape, condition monitoring and the value offered by new technologies are the new trending topics.

The benefits of predictive maintenance are attributed to the use of a new type of ultra-smart sensor. This analysis will highlight the features of this new approach and Priver's contribution in employing new monitoring solutions.

What is Condition Monitoring?

Condition monitoring is a proactive maintenance strategy to control machinery conditions, very important to carry out predictive maintenance. It is possible to preemptively check changes in condition and intervene before the machine reaches critical conditions.

By using specific devices, it's feasible to analyze data and determine the need for maintenance intervention. Thanks to more advanced technologies, it's possible to measure machinery parameters and schedule preventive activities.

Benefits of Predictive Maintenance

In the industrial field, predictive maintenance has the advantage of making the entire maintenance of plants less costly. It is considered a long-term beneficial activity because it is very effective in identifying faults and intervening promptly.

Condition Monitoring uses smart sensors and devices that measure data from plant components. The sensors in the plants can signal the sudden registration of anomalies and provide details on the type of issue encountered.

Being able to anticipate maintenance interventions allows for the safeguarding of the entire plant and the discovery of additional ongoing malfunctions. Preventive maintenance makes it possible to identify critical variations and consequently anticipate subsequent maintenance interventions.

Sensors record data and can send a logical signal that will then be depicted on the monitoring panel. The technician's job will be to identify which part of the system or plant needs maintenance and then intervene accordingly.

This type of maintenance indeed allows for more details in advance and the scheduling of interventions when possible.

Machines do not suffer from excessively long downtime, and maintenance does not interrupt the production cycle of the industries. Scheduled interventions are generally planned for a moment of expected downtime or at the end of a job.

These maintenance interventions extend the average life of the machine and optimize industrial resources, reducing production downtime costs.

Furthermore, if maintenance is periodic, it improves the safety of the machinery, whereas if inadequate, it poses dangers in the workplace.

Maintenance Innovation in Industry 4.0

This new predictive approach evolves in a context that leverages digital technology to optimize industrial production processes. The added value lies in the real-time control of signals sent by sensors and the ease of visualizing anomalies. Data and information are detected and collected when machinery parameters begin to signal changes. The signal sent to the monitoring software then allows technicians to understand the problems and intervene with corrective actions.

If machine inspection was visual or instrumental in the past, it now becomes more efficient thanks to more technological monitoring tools.

Sensors perform a thermal and acoustic analysis, useful for analyzing vibration dynamics and machine noise emissions.

In addition to these, two other conditions to monitor can be infrared analysis and fluid analysis. Technicians check the parameters in the sensors, which, based on exceeding a certain value, will send intervention signals to the central system.

At Priver, we offer support in acquiring technological tools and IoT sensors for condition monitoring in various industrial applications.

We implement monitoring technologies for hydraulic, pneumatic, electromechanical systems capable of detecting any type of problem.

We support companies in acquiring suitable tools to improve the performance of corporate assets and increase flexibility, efficiency, and industrial productivity.