Machine monitoring goes remote

By Jim Romeo

Widely used for innumerable industrial applications, machine monitoring has many benefits for equipment operation. For machine and cutting tool operations, monitoring gives helpful data to make operations more efficient and supplies great utility to a machine shop during a pandemic.

“Machine monitoring nowadays entails remote monitoring,” said Daniel Fernandes, senior product manager of bandsaws for Lenox Tools in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts. “Different platforms can aggregate data and information about machine tools in operation and provide owners and operators with trends and data to drive decisions. Such decisions include maintenance, downtime and other information.”

He said machine monitoring can increase machine utilization and productivity.

“Both of these factors have a direct impact on a company’s bottom line,” Fernandes said. “Most companies are trying to get this type of technology into their plants, but there is a long way to go before this becomes mainstream. We are in the very early stages of adoption at this point.”

Pandemic-Friendly

For many machine shops, COVID-19 has posed a challenge. Industrial hygiene emerged as a factor that promotes remote or automated operations when possible.

“The global pandemic has taken a toll on operations as facilities have increased precautions to ensure workers and facilities are safe from the virus,” Fernandes said. “Automated operation is advantageous, but many operations on the shop floor need operators, and that will likely continue going forward. If technology gains can help limit the number of operators needed or how often they are needed, that will help.”

ShopFloorConnect tracks machine uptime and downtime, reasons for downtime, production rates and piece part counts when applicable. Image courtesy of Wintriss Controls Group

He said the pandemic has forced facilities to operate lean and ensure they have procedures in place for quick turnarounds of incoming orders.

“Automation will continue to gain traction,” Fernandes said, “and COVID-19 will continue to push that initiative forward.”

Jim Finnerty, product manager at Wintriss Controls Group LLC in Acton, Massachusetts, said a key to monitoring is consistency.

“Machine monitoring implementations that use a mix of dissimilar interfaces on machines often lack the ability to collect the same consistent set of data that is necessary for effective machine monitoring,” he said. “When all machines are equipped with the same purpose-designed interfaces, the tag data, nomenclature, collection frequency and other factors are consistent, enabling accurate comparisons among machines. In other words, you won’t be comparing apples to crab apples. Consistent machine interfaces also enable operators to move from machine to machine without having to learn a new method of data reporting and collection.”

Finnerty said the pandemic has put machine monitoring in the spotlight as it is a means of being productive while minimizing contact and human intervention with machines.

“Whenever and wherever possible, companies are requiring all nonessential-to-production personnel to work from home,” he said. “More than ever, managers and decision-makers are working remotely, and they require production data that is accurate, unbiased and — most of all — timely. This is impossible without a reliable machine monitoring system.”

Finnerty said the need to maintain production in the wake of COVID-19 has minimized the traffic of contractors, subcontractors and other personnel who transit through machine shops or become close to operations.

ShopFloorConnect’s machine interface is network-ready and factory-configured to drop right into an existing ShopFloorConnect installation and begin collecting data. Image courtesy of Wintriss Controls Group

“An underreported effect of COVID and the resulting lockdowns on industry has been that outside contractors, installers, trainers and support technicians are often prevented from making site visits,” he said. “Software and hardware vendors have had to adapt by ensuring adequate remote support for their products and redesigning hardware interfaces so that they are more easily implemented by the end users. This is challenging given the wide variety of machines and controllers that need to be connected to the data network. Suppliers need to provide an interface that collects the necessary information from the machines without a complex integration with existing controllers.”