Industrial water filtration: meeting demand for clean water
Water is an essential component to producing high quality final products across many industries, such as pharmaceutical manufacturing, food and beverage production, and semiconductor manufacturing. The pre-treatment of the incoming water supply provides consistency from batch to batch for manufacturing processes. The rise in demand for smaller skid-based water handling systems is growing, and machine builders are looking for solutions to meet the needs of their customers. Adapting to meet the trend toward modular, flexible skid systems allows machine builders to differentiate themselves from the market by increasing the value to their customers, reducing costs, and improving the user experience.
Reduce total cost of ownership
Reducing dependency on proprietary software systems simplifies machine control architecture and reduces cost.
Gain remote access to machines
Reduce service costs, increase machine functionality, and introduce new business models with connected machines.
Improve operator experience
Simplifed machine controls enhances the operator experience and reduces training requirements.
Streamline development
Simplifying controls with a display controller and one free programming software reduces hardware costs and accelerates development time. The power of a display controller is that one device combines:
- HMI display
- PLC functionality
- IIoT data flow
Innovative controls architecture reduces hardware costs, eliminates software licensing fees, and streamlines integration time. This allows you to bring new machines to market faster than integrating cumbersome legacy systems.
Flexible software systems
CODESYS software was designed to reduce friction of industrial controls. This revolutionary software platform has increased speed of machine deployment from design to commissioning. It can:
- Eliminate software licensing fees
- Support multiple programming languages
- Increase IIoT functionality with built-in features
- Enhance process data quality
The extensive code libraries and function blocks within CODESYS significantly reduce programming time, and provide flexibility to make changes in functionality that were previously unattainable.
Reduce production costs
When designing new systems, machine builders need to accelerate production to stay competitive. Switching to a flexible controls architecture helps to:
- Accelerate machine build time
- Reduce or eliminate control cabinets
- Reduce integration time
By reducing the amount of physical components, you increase supply chain resilience. Field mountable hardware reduces reliance on expensive control cabinets that require significant wiring. All of advantages reduce the time to design and commission new machines.
New business opportunities
Remote access to machines can provide machine builders with additional revenue streams, including:
- Warranty to Uptime contracts
- Comprehensive service plans
- Automated inventory reordering
With remote monitoring and diagnosis, it offers an opportunity to implement a new business model where machine builders can lease machines or end-users can pay for a set amount of filtered water. This allows customers to only pay for what they need, and offers machine builders a new business model option.
Machine health monitoring
With machines connected to the cloud, machine builders and users experience the benefits. Machine builders can:
- Detect anomalies proactively
- Monitor & diagnose remotely
- Order parts before sending a technician
Remote maintenance reduces labor and travel costs for service calls. From afar, machine builders can proactively monitor machine health and diagnose a problem, or order parts before sending a technician onsite. Streamlining service workflows provides quicker resolution to machine troubleshooting when they arise.
Remote Firmware and software updates
With remote access, it's easier for machine builders to push software or firmware updates out to all of their machines remotely. This reduces the burden on customers to keep software up to date. Connected machines receive regular firmware updates from anywhere. This ensures machines perform at the expected level of operation.
Automated resource management
This provides unparalleled information access that brings fully automated intelligence to your machines. With a cloud connection and smart sensors, you can set thresholds for automatically ordering of refills. Using multiple sensor values, the machine can monitor membrane efficiency and alert to membrane normalization. This allows machine builders to program automatic replacements for:
- Membrane filters
- Chemicals
- Other raw materials
Customers receive replacement parts or inventory as they need it, creating an enhanced customer experience and reducing downtime. The automated data collection and reporting reduces labor costs of compiling compliance or regulatory reports.
Simplify machine control
One intuitive touchscreen interface combines:
- Machine health visualization
- Machine controls
- Alert management
For the operator, the HMI display provides a centralized hub of information about the machine. Proactive alerts make it easy for the operator to take action, and those actions are logged by the system for review if needed.
Reduce training time
Simplified controls architecture isn’t just a benefit to machine builders, but offers an enhanced experience for the end users. Reducing complex controls system down to an intuitive touchscreen interface reduces the learning curve for operators. Advanced programming knowledge is no longer necessary, so operaters can quickly adjust to a new machine or implement new functionality.
Machine builders have control over user access, allowing you to lockdown parts of the system that users shouldn't need to access. This reduces complexity and increases security.
Display controllers make innovation attainable. They provide simplifed machine controls, HMI display for an intuitive operator experience, and IIoT connection for remote monitoring. This one device revolutionizes machine architecture for both machine builders and users.
IO-Link provides a flexible communication protocol for connecting smart sensors. As part of an open constortium, it is technology agnostic. This allows you to access your machine data at your convenience.
Pressure sensors or level sensors provide high degrees of accuracy and reliability for optimal machine design.
Conductivity sensors provide real-time measurements that allow you to monitor skid health in a variety of applications.
Temperature sensors provide real-time monitoring of the conditions within your filtration system. Media temperature is important to calculating membrane normalization.
Flow sensors are critical for monitoring flow rate, totalizing functionality, and media temperature in real-time. They are important for monitoring membrane health.
Preparing for the future of water filtration
Innovative technologies are enhancing functionality of water filtration skids. Increased flexibility in hardware and software solutions are providing significant productivity gains for machine builders and an enhanced user experience for those relying on these critical machines to supply their industrial processes. Simplifying machine control architecture while creating connected machines is providing new opportunities for both machine builders and users.
