Remote level monitoring
Challenge: Monitoring fluctuating water level in a natural well located 400 meters from the farm, which is essential for both agricultural and household water needs. Seasonal changes, drought, and fluctuations in groundwater levels can lead to water shortages. Additionally, the water tank's level can only be checked manually on-site, making it difficult to track rapid changes over time.
Solution: Use remote monitoring with the io-key, a device that transmits data from a water level sensor to the moneo cloud via mobile communication. This system enables continuous water level monitoring, alerts for low water levels, and tracking of consumption trends, all without the need for infrastructure like power supply or network connections. Powered by solar energy, it ensures reliable monitoring in remote locations.
Monitoring of cooling lubricant levels without network infrastructure
Challenge: Irregular level monitoring of cooling lubricant in a small, decentralized tank on a hacksaw, where fluctuations occur due to material carry-over and evaporation. Without regular checks, maintenance personnel often fill the tank inconsistently, leading to potential machine issues and increased wear on the saw blade. The hacksaw is located in an area without IT infrastructure, making it difficult to implement traditional monitoring systems.
Solution: Remote monitoring with the io-key, which transmits data from a cooling lubricant level sensor to the moneo cloud via mobile communication. This system enables real-time tracking of coolant levels and alerts for refills, improving maintenance efficiency and reducing costs without relying on a network infrastructure.
Remote temperature monitoring in district heating
Challenge: Monitoring and maintaining consistent temperature levels in a district heating system that supplies multiple buildings, such as schools and other facilities, to prevent issues like legionella growth. Temperature fluctuations and delays in the system, such as a 30-minute lag in temperature shifts over long distances, make it difficult to accurately track and address heating issues.
Solution: Remote temperature monitoring using the io-key, which transmits data from temperature sensors to the cloud via mobile communication. This system enables continuous temperature monitoring, alerts for deviations from required levels, and analysis of temperature trends, all without relying on network infrastructure.
Remote automated BRIX monitoring
Challenge: Wineries face the challenge of scaling production while ensuring consistent wine quality, as manual Brix monitoring is labor-intensive, prone to errors, and lacks real-time visibility. Degrees Brix, a key measure of sugar content, directly impacts a wine's taste, alcohol content, and stability. Traditional methods, such as handheld refractometers, risk errors in data entry and incomplete visibility of fermentation progress.
Solution: Automated monitoring with ifm’s IO-Link-enabled pressure sensors and io-key offers a scalable solution by transmitting real-time Brix and temperature data to the cloud. This enables remote monitoring, proactive issue resolution, labor optimization, and improved wine quality and process efficiency, providing valuable insights for operations of any size from anywhere.
Quick condition monitoring for asset health
Challenge: Simple yet critical machines like fans, motors, and pumps are vital to plant operations. While these machines often operate in hard-to-reach areas, their failure can lead to costly downtimes and expensive repairs, which directly affect asset health.
Solution: Enhance asset health by installing two ifm VVB3 3-axis vibration sensors and an io-key wireless IoT gateway. This solution offers instant sensor-to-cloud connectivity with no programming required, enabling continuous monitoring of machine health. The io-key supports up to two sensors, transmitting three critical process values—vibration RMS (v-RMS), temperature, and bearing health—every 10 seconds to the cloud through the AIS973 data plan. This proactive condition monitoring empowers real-time alerts for early detection of potential failures, reducing downtime and extending asset lifespan.