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Motor sensor tells when it's time for a service

A new smart sensing solution from ABB can reduce downtimes of low-voltage motors by up to 70 percent and extend their lifetime by up to 30 percent.

Until now, the monitoring and preventive maintenance of low-voltage motors has been time consuming and expensive. New technology from ABB transforms simple motors into intelligent machines that tell you when they need servicing. Attached directly to the motor, smart sensors supply operating and condition parameters wirelessly.

The innovative sensor technology, which is an enclosed tag, really, offers plant operators and manufacturers not only huge potential savings on maintenance and repair, but should also make it easy to utilize the Internet of Things (IoT) for millions of motors. Using this technology, The plant operators, for example, can check the status of their motors at any time using their smartphone or PC. If the system detects a problem, it will send a warning to the operator to signal the need for maintenance.

At ABB, the idea of the IoT goes one step further. They call it IoTSP, (The Internet of Things, Services, and People). It's ABB's concept for enabling its customers to take advantage of the opportunities of digitalization. With the new motor-sensor solution, small and midsize companies can also benefit from the advantages offered by the IoTSP.

The smart sensor provides information on operating and condition parameters such as vibration, temperature, or overload and calculates power consumption. The data is analyzed by a specially developed software program and provided to the plant operator in the form of graphics for maintenance planning, thereby enabling downtime reductions up to 70 percent. At the same time, the lifetime of the motors can be extended by up to 30 percent, and energy consumption can be reduced by as much as 10 percent, so that the investment in this innovative form of condition monitoring pays for itself in less than a year.

Analyzing the stored data can create new opportunities to optimize plant operation and maintenance. For instance, information on the energy consumption of motors could be used to create efficient load profiles.

"This innovative solution makes condition monitoring the new standard for low-voltage motors," says Pekka Tiitinen, president of the ABB's Discrete Automation and Motion division. "Optimized maintenance schedules help reduce maintenance costs greatly. Unscheduled outages are reduced considerably or even eliminated completely. Increased availability significantly boosts our customers' productivity."

One of the best parts is that using the monitoring sensor is not restricted to new motors made by ABB. The sensors can be installed at the factory or retrofitted on already-operating low-voltage motors within minutes.

And cybersecurity is guaranteed at all times with ABB's new sensor technology. The sensor is not electrically connected to the motor (there is no physical wired connection), so unauthorized parties cannot access the motor via this route. Instead, the smart sensors "listen to the heartbeat of the motor" and wirelessly transmit data via encryption protocols to a secure server, where they are analyzed using special algorithms. The cloud-based server implementation fulfills all of ABB's strict specifications for cybersecurity. The data is stored in the cloud in encrypted form. The Internet-based customer portal also uses a role-based access protocol to make the data securely accessible.

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Source: ABB

Published May 2016

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