Doing more with less is the norm for maintenance managers. Whether it is time, skilled labor, or budget, there are never enough resources to go around. Yet the demand for uptime has never been greater as companies more fully realize the cost of equipment failures.
The big issue: intermittent faults.
Intermittent faults:
- Are caused by a combination of factors that often require taking measurements with handheld tools across multiple assets.
- Lead to at least one hour of technician productivity waste every day.
- Can create a constant rush-to-the-next-failure approach to maintenance that never allows teams to get ahead nor allow managers to deploy their teams in the most effective way.
- Occur across every class of assets.
Tier 1 vs. Tier 2 Assets
- Tier 1: most critical assets have built-in sensors that provide early indications of problems that
- need to be addressed.
- Tier 2: 4 million other assets like pumps, heat exchangers, compressors, and blowers have not warranted sensors due to cost or the impractically but can shut down a plant just as effectively.
Older assets: many plants have equipment that may be decades old — hardly the era of smart devices — so plugging them into the internet is either very difficult or impossible. Fluke Condition Monitoring was designed to help maintenance teams monitor a large array of equipment of any age continuously and automatically to better understand the health of critical assets in a plant — when it’s needed, where it’s needed.
What is Fluke Condition Monitoring?
Fluke Condition Monitoring is a new, always-on, IIoT condition monitoring system consisting of:
- Wireless sensors
- ac and dc voltage
- ac and dc current
- temperature
- three-phase power monitoring
The sensors send measurements 24 hours a day for up to 40 days and as frequently as once a second in order to catch intermittent problems when they occur. A gateway that receives signals from the sensors up to 30 feet away and streams measurement data to the cloud, feeding Fluke Connect software. Fluke Connect Condition Monitoring software and mobile app, which compares streaming measurements against thresholds to trigger alarms when exceeded and compiles measurements from sensors and Fluke wireless tools to create a comprehensive view of equipment health.
Familiar technologies, easy portability Fluke Condition Monitoring features familiar Fluke technologies, such as iFlex™, current clamps, and probes so there is virtually no learning curve. The sensors, gateway and alarms can be installed in less than an hour by staff technicians, and the power quality monitor features the same industry-leading ease-of-use as other Fluke power loggers. The system is highly portable and takes just minutes to move from one piece of equipment to another to monitor asset health where it is most needed.
All the hardware is drop-tested and the sensors are IP 54 and CAT rated to withstand the harsh conditions found in most plants.
Who uses Fluke Condition Monitoring?
In-house maintenance managers — they have too many faults occurring all across the plant and not enough trained technicians to cover all the issues. Fluke Condition Monitoring provides:
- Flexibility to continuously monitor the particular equipment that needs it on a given day or week.
- More efficient use of manpower; when a fault occurs, attach multiple sensors and leave them monitoring instead of spending all day troubleshooting.
- Technology that is familiar and that technicians can install without outside resources.
- Remote power monitoring with a continuous data stream, essential for troubleshooting system conflicts
Third-party service contractors — faults happen while their crews aren’t there, so they have to send a technician back to the job site to chase down the issues. Fluke Condition Monitoring provides:
- Constant visibility into the health of their customers’ critical assets no matter where they are so they can anticipate issues.
- The ability to deliver a higher level of service to their clients by staying on top of their equipment whether they are there or not.
- Fluke Condition Monitoring provides a scalable system to address the major challenges maintenance managers face.
Availability
The Fluke 3500 FC Series Condition Monitoring System will be sold directly by Fluke, in hardware and software bundles.
Pre-orders begin July 25th; Full ecommerce begins mid-August.
For more information, visit http://www.fluke.com/ConditionMonitoring