Sensor Synergy’s Powerful IIoT Solutions Work for Industry

Sensor Synergy has demonstrated substantial savings from IIoT monitoring at industrial and commercial operations with our NEEM technology. The most common result of these monitoring activities was uncovering wasteful operations that managers were unaware of. Although the machine operators knew they were following certain procedures, they were not aware that these procedures were wasteful. The NEEM’s 24/7/365 measurements, every 2 seconds, highlighted operational details that few understood were ongoing.

For example:

Sensor to Make Efficient Operations

In one foundry location, we worked with the customer to understand their power usage during daily melt cycles. During normal operations, the crucibles holding molten metal were required to “hold” their position before pouring molten metal into molds. During these hold operations, the induction furnace operations were supposed to continue to heat crucibles at 10% of full power. With the customer’s assistance, we set up the NEEM-2 to monitor the power used by the induction furnace with new power measurements every 2 seconds.  We shared the NEEM-2 data files with an AI agent to determine what fraction of the workday was spent in a “hold” condition, knowing that time intervals with 10% power usage correspond to “hold” cycles. The AI agent analyzed the data to determine what fraction of the day was spent during hold operations. The AI agent’s analysis was confirmed by our on-staff data scientists. The result of both of these analyses showed that during the 5 days of these tests, there were no hold operations except for a few transitions, each lasting less than one minute. When the management discussed these results with the furnace operators, the issue became clear. In reality, induction furnace operators were setting the furnace power levels at 40% during hold operations – not the 10% that management thought was a correct hold power level. In fact, at the 40% power level, “hold” operations were occurring from 15% to 25% of the day. This “misunderstanding” may have been occurring for 3 to 5 years and was costing the company many $100,000’s per year due to excess energy costs and other operational issues.

Sensors as a Form of Insurance

NEEM IIoT monitoring technology was used to ensure that optimum conditions for certain industrial coating operations were being maintained by the on-site crew. A diesel-fueled, external generator powered special air-conditioning equipment to maintain proper coating environments. Electrical power, temperature, and humidity were monitored at critical locations. Dew point was calculated in real-time using the NEEM’s “virtual sensor” technology. Real-time humidity and temperature sensor measurements were used by the virtual sensor to provide real-time dew point measurements. During one important set of field operations, the generator ran out of diesel fuel at 2:30 am.  Sensor Synergy’s “Sensor-Info.com” website detected the problem and triggered an email and text message alert to two key staffers. That allowed an immediate response by plant personnel to restore the electrical generator and air conditioning equipment to normal operations. The ongoing, 24/7, real-time measurements of dew-point revealed no damage to the recently applied coating, and the work surface was still ready for the next day of coating operations. The loss of tens of thousands of dollars was prevented at this critical site.

Remote Monitoring to Avoid Disruptive Equipment Breakdown 

In one application, our customer used vibration and temperature sensors to monitor the health of a critical motor. As the vibration levels increased, so did the temperature. The customer scheduled a motor bearing change for a Sunday afternoon, and a disruptive breakdown was probably avoided.

In another example, one of our customers experienced difficulty with an air conditioning unit that would cause a circuit breaker to trip and allow some computing equipment to overheat. The customer did not have direct control of the air conditioning unit, but could monitor the room and equipment temperature. Whenever the rack of computing equipment became too hot, our customer received an alert from the NEEM technology and notified the building maintenance staff of the room temperature issue. This customer believes that he prevented catastrophic damage to his specialized computing equipment.