ELECTRONICS
iVT International Off-Highway 2020 83
interfaces or circuit boards – such as the one for
condition monitoring.
“Paired with our mapp software components,
this results in a very high-performance system
that monitors machine health and informs
operators in time to take action,” says Taxer. “The
mapp components are quick to configure and
communicate with each other automatically –
reducing the amount of actual programming to a
minimum.”
You’ve got mail... from your machine
One example of how mapp components
communicate is the interaction between the
alarm and notification systems using mapp
Alarm and mapp Tweet. “You can easily link
these components so that, whenever an alarm
occurs, the service technician will receive an
email or text message,” says Taxer. This message
can inform the technician that a certain bearing
is worn and should be replaced within a certain
time span.
“As easy as the alarm system is to set up, the
most exciting part is the impact it can have on the
overall maintenance strategy,” says Taxer,
referring to the enormous potential for savings.
Condition-based maintenance streamlines spare
parts logistics and eliminates the need to replace
perfectly healthy components long before the end
of their service life.
It even becomes possible to share certain
condition monitoring data with the machine
builder. “If a manufacturer is able to track the
health of their machines, they can drastically
reduce the probability of failure,” says Taxer. This,
of course, is also in the best interest of the
operator.
Builders of mobile equipment can also use
selected data to optimize their designs and are
able to pursue new business models such as
equipment monitoring as a service. In this case,
the operator is relieved of the fleet maintenance
headache and is simply informed when a
replacement part will be delivered and installed.
Win-win
This brings Taxer to yet another advantage: “It’s
no longer necessary to over-engineer so many
components.” A fact which, once again, benefits
both sides: the manufacturer saves production
costs, and the operator pays less for the machine.
Since the X90 controller can be connected to
existing CAN architectures, it is easy equip an
existing fleet with condition monitoring. “It
becomes possible to move step-by-step toward a
modern real-time bus system that is able to
handle the volume of data being generated by
today’s machines,” he says.
Conventional strategies for preventing
unexpected failure of mining excavators are
costly and resource-intensive. With B&R’s X90
system and condition monitoring technology,
both manufacturers and operators of mobile
equipment can generate added value with
solutions that make their steel giants more
reliable. iVT
Author: Carmen Klingler-Deiseroth, B& R Industrial
FREE READER ENQUIRY SERVICE
To learn more about this advertiser, visit
www.magupdate.co.uk/pivt
ABOVE: Even the slightest defect on a bearing can
be detected early through vibration analysis
The longer the damage
goes undetected, the
higher the resulting
maintenance costs
/pivt