Manufacturing operations, be they small, medium, large, or humongous, rely on varying amounts of equipment. And any piece of equipment, simple, complex, or general-purpose, if it’s involved in creating end products that work safely, is critical to a company’s success. More often than not, monitoring the operation and condition of said equipment can be a daunting and tedious task.
Sensors, sensor interfaces, some embedded systems, and software are the tools that can make those monitoring tasks absolutely pain free. Depending on the industry, monitoring systems can range from a few sensors and a handheld meter to an expansive network of sensors of various types, several networked computers, and special, proprietary data-acquisition/data-analysis software.
Naturally, prices for these systems matches their size and sophistication. But in the grand scheme of things, the investment provides even greater returns in terms of reducing or eliminating defective outputs and indicating equipment problems before repairs and maintenance costs become prohibitive. In other words, a bit of proactive prevention is worth its weight in gold (or pastrami, whichever you prefer).
It may sound like a simple exercise, setting up sensors and monitoring their output, but there can be some expensive pitfalls, such as underbudgeting a system, or being overly proactive and using an overkill data-acquisition paradigm. Whether you admit your expertise in this arena leaves something to be desired or if you believe you know it all, you can only benefit from getting some first-hand advice from an expert in the field. And you have that opportunity readily available to you for minimal cost.
At Sensors Expo Midwest, on Wednesday October 17, 2018 from 2:00 pm to 2:50 pm, you can attend the session titled, “Predictive Maintenance & Condition Monitoring” sponsored by Texas Instruments. Cynthia Sosa, an Applications Engineer at Texas Instruments will show attendees how to design condition-monitoring circuits using a nano-power sensor monitor, as well as how to optimize these circuits for power, cost, size, and autonomy.
To better ensure the reliability of industrial equipment, sensors are used to monitor environmental conditions such as voltage fluctuations, unwanted vibrations, etc. With the increase of these sensors, there is a driving need for circuits that are lower power, lower cost, smaller size, and autonomous. This session will give you the tools to keep the factory floor running cool and smooth.
Cynthia Sosa is currently an applications engineer on the Precision ADC team at Texas Instruments, where she has also been part of the low-dropout (LDO) regulator team. She has experience in hardware design and verification in a variety of applications including test and measurement equipment and grid infrastructure. Cynthia has authored four articles covering the design and optimization of ADC systems. She is also currently enrolled at Arizona State University pursing an MSEE in mixed-signal circuit design.
Believe it or not, you can easily acquire the aforementioned knowledge you need via two easy steps:
- Register for Sensors Midwest 2018.
- Attend the “Predictive Maintenance & Condition Monitoring” session, Wednesday October 17, 2018 from 2:00 pm to 2:50 pm.
And while you’re at it, checkout the conference schedule for related sessions and the exhibitor lineup for presentations of the latest sensors and sensor-related products plus a plethora of other technologies.
