Page 40 - EE Times Europe Magazine | March 2020

40 EE|Times EUROPE — Boards & Solutions Insert

COVER STORY
Open-Source Platform for Industry 4.0

By Maurizio Di Paolo Emilio

he Intelligent Condition Monitoring Box (iCOMOX) is an open-source PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE FOR
development platform for condition-based monitoring of equipment, INDUSTRY 4.0
assets, and industrial facilities. The goal of the board is to monitor Predictive maintenance is a true strategy,
supported by intelligent IoT sensors and
T operating conditions at the equipment surface to identify potential fail- embedded control solutions that offer
ures and reduce the risks associated with equipment operation and maintenance. advanced business models to create addi-
Condition-based monitoring extends equipment operating life while minimizing tional value between company and customer
and achieve significant maintenance cost
unplanned downtime and maintenance costs. The open-source platform thus savings. Sensors can be used to monitor
advances the goal of Industry 4.0 automation to increase production efficiency key equipment continuously, and produc-
tion data can be recorded and wirelessly
through digital solutions.
transmitted in real time to the cloud for
predictive-maintenance analysis to optimize
flow and enhance security. Consulting firm
McKinsey & Co. estimates that effective use
of predictive maintenance in factories can
reduce downtime by up to 50% and save 10%
to 40% on equipment maintenance costs.
Predictive-maintenance environments
include a platform to model, simulate, test,
and deploy the solution. The tools include
industrial data-integration and -analysis
algorithms to detect patterns in machine
data and root-cause–analysis tools to deter-
mine the corrective action to be taken.
Vibration, temperature, and pressure are
just some of the parameters that can indicate
equipment status and identify potential
failures (Figure 1). Monitoring techniques
are normally used on equipment such as
compressors and pumps.
Because vibration is the most common
symptom of imbalance, misalignment, and
Figure 1: Vibration frequency analysis for fault detection (Image: Analog Devices) other anomalies, predictive maintenance is

Figure 3: The iCOMOX kit
Figure 2: Predictive maintenance (Image: Bosch) (Image: EE Times Europe)

MARCH 2020 | www.eetimes.eu