Despite their appearance, manufacturing plants are filled with delicate ecosystems that must function in perfect harmony to ensure they are operating efficiently, effectively and safely. The fluid or product used in these systems is transferred through pumps, which are essential to running the operation. With the highly important roles pumps play in manufacturing, regularly scheduled maintenance, while important, may not be enough to avoid potential failures.
Knowing that, here are some of the common performance-related worries that can keep manufacturing-facility operators tossing and turning at night:
- A pump can fail without someone noticing, resulting in gallons of potentially hazardous product spilled and thousands of dollars lost.
- Another pump may start to operate abnormally, but not enough for an operator to notice. This could result in compromised product specs, potential safety hazards and massive failures.
- Another pump may not malfunction within the parameters of the maintenance plan. This could have catastrophic results if maintenance is not done soon enough, or it can simply be wasteful to change out parts that still have life in them if done too early.
Any of these scenarios could result in lost time, productivity, and profits while also increasing the potential for a workplace accident.
Up in the Cloud
The solution: AODD pumps with advanced diagnostics and Cloud-based performance monitoring. The common concerns of the manufacturing-facility operator – the extremely high cost of downtime, lost product and cleanup – will no longer impede sleep when using advanced monitoring with AODD pumps.
Diagnostic monitoring of pumping technologies started in the Industrial Internet of Things, or IIoT. The IIoT is a network of physical devices, systems and platforms that use embedded communication technology to share the operational intelligence of industrial machines. Sensor data and machine-to-machine communication technologies enable the identification of operational inefficiencies sooner and more reliably, resulting in significant cost savings.
Many critical aspects of the AODD pump can be measured via remote diagnostic technology: status of wear parts, diaphragm failures (or even predicting a diaphragm failure), identifying the timing for a potential failure, excessive dry-run conditions or operational impediments that can impact performance. Stroke rate and stroke counts are also monitored, allowing operators to be more proactive and schedule better preventative maintenance. This information will result in less downtime, higher profit margins and a safer, more efficient manufacturing system.
Wilden® SafeGuard™
Wilden® is now providing premier pump monitoring through a simple diagnostic and monitoring technology for its line of AODD pumps with Wilden SafeGuard™. Cloud connectivity allows for continuous remote monitoring that tracks, records and alerts customers to key performance indicators. This is done via a single battery-powered sensor mounted directly onto the pump that collects real-time data and sends it to a sensor reader for encryption and transmission to the Cloud. The data can then be accessed through a secure smartphone app or online portal. Some of the data reporting includes leak detection, stroke rates and counts, real-time alerts sent to a user’s phone or email, and maintenance records. And now, even an entire fleet of AODD pumps can be managed remotely within one dedicated software system.
Rest Assured
The advances of digital-monitoring technology and IIoT capabilities enable users to perform preventative maintenance more efficiently, while also being alerted to potential failures. Using the Wilden SafeGuard will not only save on costs, decrease downtime and enhance facility safety, but manufacturing-facility operators will also be well rested knowing that the Wilden SafeGuard is helping keep tabs on their fleet of AODD pumps.