The new-look programme will feature a variety of different session formats including; keynote presentations, in-depth case study reviews of active maintenance projects, technical sessions, and panel discussions.

Each day begins with a keynote presentation, both of which emphasise the role of digitalisation in modern maintenance. Today, digitalisation offers wide-ranging potential for long-term and predictive maintenance.

The concept of preventative maintenance is driven by the desire to prevent rather than experience asset failure. The benefits of preventing a machine failure can have significant benefits in terms of machine repair costs, lost production time and disruption to the customer.

Imagine a production facility where all breakdowns are predicted far enough in advance that engineering teams can alter the maintenance strategy to avoid the outcome.

Conference sponsor Emerson Automation Solutions kicks off Day One with a keynote presentation given by Gary Ingram, Sales Manager UK&I, entitled Accelerating the Digitalisation Journey with Operational Certainty, which focuses on the increasing significance of digitalisation in the maintenance function.

Plants typically monitor the condition of essential assets such as pumps, fans, and heat exchangers only every 30 to 60 days. The longer the gap, the more likely that a defect goes undetected and this risks an unexpected failure with significant impact on production, product quality, and plant efficiency. Just a one percent improvement in uptime can equal millions of pounds per year.

Emerson recently introduced the AMS Asset Monitor edge analytics device, which provides actionable insights into essential assets that were previously monitored only with infrequent assessments. The new edge analytics device will connect with Emerson’s Plantweb Optics asset performance platform to provide instant asset health details for operations and maintenance decision-making.

Unlike analytics devices that send data to a historian or the cloud to be processed later, AMS Asset Monitor provides analytics at the edge, performing calculations at the device. This reduces the time, complication, and expense of adding analytics to a plant’s assets.

Each device collects data continuously and uses embedded logic to identify and diagnose common reliability issues. Individual issues such as imbalance, misalignment, bearing faults, lubrication issues, or fouling are consolidated into an overall asset health score. AMS Asset Monitor then communicates these health scores via a web browser or – when integrated with Plantweb Optics – through real-time alerts on mobile devices.

The AMS Asset Monitor’s small footprint, along with wired or wireless Ethernet connectivity, makes it simple to install. The edge device can support new applications by simply adding new logic-based analytics.

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Image: www.Emerson.com/documents/automation/emerson%E2%80%99s-new-easy-to-deploy-monitoring-accelerates-asset-digitalization-en-us-5984196.jpg

Caption: The AMS Asset Monitor’s small form factor and Ethernet connectivity make it easy to add on to existing assets to deliver continuous asset data and analytics.

Image: www.Emerson.com/documents/automation/emerson%E2%80%99s-new-easy-to-deploy-monitoring-accelerates-asset-digitalization-en-us-5984198.jpg

Caption: AMS Asset Monitor provides flexible, scalable reliability monitoring with edge analytics, enabling plants to more easily adopt predictive maintenance to avoid operations disruption and maximise production time.

Vibration analysis software

A second Emerson presentation on Day Two, a case study given by Wireless Solutions BDM Will Brown, illustrates how the company's PeakVue vibration analysis software is delivering a rapid return on investment for a UK-based automotive manufacturer. The latest version of PeakVue provides more diagnostic tools, identifies the nature of faults (such as mechanical or lubrication) and provides suggested corrective action. This case study demonstrates how the vibration waveform to reliably detect low-speed bearing faults and enable immediate intervention and cost mitigation.

Brown is a wireless specialist at Emerson and is responsible for helping to deploy WiFi and WirelessHART technology throughout major industrial and process environments in the UK, including process monitoring systems, and corrosion or condition-based monitoring installations.

Whisky galore

The first case study on show on Day One combines speakers from Mitsubishi Electric and Muntons, one of the UK’s largest producers of malted barley, which is used to make beer, spirits and a range of popular foodstuffs. Malted barley is produced in large batches where environmental conditions are critical to a consistent product.

Muntons is protecting vital parts of its production process against unscheduled downtime by using the Mitsubishi Smart Condition Monitoring (SCM) system.

As in many food industries, the principles of the barley malting process are quite traditional, but Muntons relies heavily on automation, electro-mechanical equipment and sensors to provide fine control over air flow, heat and moisture. Fans and motors are critical: Muntons processes many tonnes of product at a time, with key operations relying on a steady supply of blown air. The chosen SCM installation provides condition monitoring for two large 315kW fan sets and a single 90kW fan set. Sensors monitor the electric motor, power transmission coupling and main fan shaft bearing on each fan set.

Plant Engineer Michael Plawecki says: “We now have a clear picture of the health of the fan sets and advance warning of any required maintenance. Remote monitoring and fast diagnosis of any issues has also made us very responsive should the limits on operating parameters that we have set be approached. As promised the system was easy to install and relatively simple to commission.”

The impetus for the SCM installation came from issues previously experienced with difficult-to-reach bearings inside a large fan housing. A bearing failure inside a fan assembly caught the Muntons engineering team unawares and proved significant in terms of downtime. “We only realised we had problems when it was too late, and we had to make an unscheduled stop on one of the lines to make repairs,” says Plawecki.

Determined to learn from that lesson, Muntons looked for a monitoring solution with predictive maintenance technology that could be linked into the company’s existing SCADA system. SCM comprises smart sensors that can be attached to bearing housings, gearboxes, pumps and motors to detect when equipment starts to operate outside its normal envelope due to wear. It provides a sophisticated early warning system for critical pieces of rotating plant equipment. Vibration frequencies and temperature readouts are monitored continuously and fed back to an L Series Mitsubishi Electric PLC via an industrial Ethernet network cable.

The sensors, developed by bearing expert FAG, monitor changes in complex vibration patterns specific to the type of equipment it is attached to. The software compares that data with highly developed data models from thousands of previous installations, providing an effective analysis and alert system for the user.

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Industry won't be ditching DC drives – here's why

A late addition to the Conference Programme, is Sprint Electric, a long-established UK manufacturer of DC drives. Marketing manager Neill Drennan tells us that the imminent demise of DC drives technology has been predicted for at least 30 years. Yet it is still going strong and in selected applications continues to outperform its more fashionable variable speed AC counterpart. 

DC drives score well when applications require full torque capability at very low (or even zero) speeds, when the drives need to be able to recover from shock loads and to compensate for these with minimal effect on the motor performance, and when it is essential to keep accurate speed regardless of whether the motor is being driven or overhauled.

Typical constant torque performance applications include extruders, wire and cable making, steel and paper mills, film and plastic manufacture, winding and/or unwinding as in printing presses. In fact, nearly all continuous process applications require constant torque throughout the speed range. So, a lot of our traditional industries fit this DC remit.

On the maintenance side, DC brushes do require changing occasionally during the motor’s life to maintain performance and the air filter on the blower motor will also need to be serviced, alt3hough neither of these tasks are arduous or costly.

“With the development of Industry 4.0, we are starting to see drives become predictive and preventative, which should in the long term makes plants more productive and efficient,” says Drennan. “There is still some way to go in achieving this ideal, but digital drives will be instrumental in making it happen. Plant operators sometimes think that their existing machines cannot cost-effectively be integrated into wide area control systems, particularly if they use DC motors and drives rather than AC. Such assumptions are usually incorrect, DC drives can be digital and can be integrated into digital control systems.”

One of the great advantages of the move to digital technology is that it has accelerated integration of related machines into sophisticated multi-function plants. Individual machines’ drives and controls can now be connected through various communication protocols such as Profibus, Profinet, Canbus and Ethernet (to name but a few). This allows them to share operational data and thus optimise overall plant performance. Later this year, Sprint Electric will launch the Anybus CompactCom option module for its PL/PLX drive range, enabling serial communications using almost any networking protocol.

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Industrial sensors feeling their way

Industry 4.0 has sparked a huge amount of interest in industrial sensors. Sensors are the front line in the information gathering process required in order for all the complex data processing to produce a useful result. A machine owner doesn’t care how information is gathered, or how it is processed – they just want to know that component X on machine Y will need replacing in six weeks, or that greater efficiency can be achieved by changing from A to B at 3pm on Wednesday.  

When sensors (photoelectric, inductive, pressure, temperature, etc) were in their infancy, they were difficult to configure and the users were relatively inexperienced. Over the following decades sensor manufacturers have made sensors far more complex, in order to differentiate far smaller differences, but also to make them much easier to set up and use. In order to achieve this the sensor gathers a large amount of data and is packed with intelligence to process this data and output a simple on/off signal. 

Now that Industry 4.0 is demanding data to be able to function, all we need to do is output the information that the sensor has been using internally for decades. Another recent addition to our Conference programme is Turck Banner had the foresight to futureproof their designs: the communication function used in production to facilitate bespoke sensors can now be utilised to extract data. Many sensors already had industry standard bus/network capabilities and for other sensor ranges, a simple modification of communication protocol was all that was required.

At Maintec, Turck Banner will run through the role of sensors in predictive maintenance applications and present a case study with Fletcher Moorland for electric motors. Installing wireless vibration and temperature sensors on rotating machinery allows operators to get consistent readings indicative of potential failure. This system is then used to notify operators of increased levels of vibration or temperature that could cause damage to the machines.

Turck Banner's wireless products can also provide vibration and temperature data in real-time to alert operators of any bearing issues to prevent emergency repairs to applications such as coal conveyors. Port based coal conveying facilities use enormous conveyor belts to transfer large amounts of coal onto ships waiting in port. The weight of the coal combined with the speed of the conveyor creates a harsh environment even when everything is running as intended. If a bearing issue develops and creates increased vibration, it can cause a catastrophic failure resulting in conveyor downtime.  Additionally, the idle ship remains at port on shore power while repairs must be made to the down conveyor.

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Merging IT and OT

On Day Two, Keynote speaker Martin Walder, Chairman of the Engineering and Machinery Alliance (EAMA) and Vice President Industry, Schneider UK, take the digitalisation theme further with a presentation on the process and challenges of merging IT (information technology) and OT (operational technology) data streams. 

This landscape is made more challenging by mass customisation and individualisation of products, as well as by a growing shortage of IT-qualified talent. In this context, OEMs must engage in long-term strategies now, by adopting Industry 4.0, mobility, cloud computing, and big data analytics, to deliver smarter, more efficient, and cost-effective machines.

EcoStruxure, Schneider Electric’s open, IoT-enabled architecture and platform, helps OEMs deliver greater operational efficiency throughout the machine life cycle. Among the devices that that run on the EcoStruxure platform are the innovative Modicon M262 Logic & Motion controller and the TeSys island multifunctional digital load management system. Modicon M262 features embedded direct cloud connectivity and encrypted communication protocols, and up to five separated Ethernet networks for fast logic and motion performance in demanding applications. 

Remote visibility into machine performance supported by embedded cloud connectivity enables OEMs to offer new service functionality, such as preventive maintenance. TeSys island provides reliable preventive maintenance data and pre-alarms which avoid machine stoppages when unusual electrical load behaviours are detected. This reduces time for corrective actions by up to 50% through smart maintenance and services.

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Artificial Intelligence versus Analysis Intelligence

For those new to collecting and analysing data for maintenance purposes, attending the PEMAC presentation would be an invaluable starting point, coming as it does with an educational guide, explaining the guiding principles and research behind the science of predictive maintenance.

Your tutor is Louis Tuttle, PEMAC's Product Sales Director. For prediction to be valuable we need to be able to see something coming down the line before it occurs, so he covers how to go about collecting sufficient data to make a useful prediction. Identifying leading indicators like increased vibration or excessive heat being generated are two examples. But the leading indicator also needs to be identifiable and measurable against some baseline. How far in advance do we see the symptom before we see the outcome? 

In a single factory setting, a problem may not occur often enough to generate sufficient data to make a useful prediction. So collating data in different locations for the same or similar equipment is one way around this problem and some manufacturers share this data with their customers. 

However, if unplanned jobs or breakdowns are not recorded systematically on a computerised maintenance management system (CMMS), the true performance of the machine will not be known, exposing gaps in equipment behaviour. This limits the useful data generated and prevents a useful model being created that might help generate insights into equipment failure. This also means that the operator cannot benefit from Artificial Intelligence (AI) because a model is required with the appropriate data to enable the machine to learn.

The benefit of full data capture helps reduce the impacts of these errors, but the data needs to be analysed in a certain way. The downside is that collecting any data requires effort and typically expense. But the evolution in Industry 4.0 and the relative ease around interfacing different systems and hardware has made both the cost of acquiring data and its availability less of an issue.

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Decision making and asset management

In launching the new Aveva portfolio of asset management software, Ian Bailey, Asset Management Lead at SolutionsPT, explains how digital transformation unlocks the potential of assets and drives the adoption of predictive maintenance strategies. 

The company’s partnership with Aveva, which was announced in April this year, further enhances SolutionPT’s 30+ years of expertise in helping companies use digital technology to maximise equipment efficiency and minimise unscheduled downtime. Aveva is designed to overcome today’s industrial challenges with industrial big data, cloud, artificial intelligence, digital twinning, and augmented reality, bundled together. 

“The availability of low-cost sensors connected via Industry 4.0 has enabled the cost-efficient gathering of asset condition and performance data – putting true predictive maintenance firmly within reach," says Bailey. “One of the clearest trends we are seeing is a desire to consolidate the operational and asset data within control room environments to a single view. As a result, we believe the Maintec show is the perfect forum for us to unveil Aveva’s new Visual Asset Management solution, which allows companies to facilitate the visualisation of an asset’s digital twin throughout its entire lifecycle – a gamechanger in the search for genuine predictive maintenance.”

Located on Stand 10, alongside this presentation, SolutionsPT will offer visitors a ‘first look’ at its Aveva AM software, which encapsulates industrial big data, cloud, artificial intelligence, digital twinning, and augmented reality, allowing companies to monitor equipment in real time, identify underperforming assets and impending problems, and take informed, pre-emptive action. Product specialists will be on hand to demonstrate the products. 

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Waste treatment asset management

Urbaser is a leader in environmental services, providing municipal waste treatment and recovery services to residents throughout the UK. Urbaser and Balfour Beatty are in a joint venture to manage Gloucestershire’s municipal waste in a way that is beneficial to the local community, economy, and environment under a contract with Gloucestershire County Council established in 2016. 

Freddy Vos, VP International Sales, Ultimo,  is highlighting how Urbaser Balfour Beatty, the street cleaning, waste recovery and recycling company, is using Ultimo's single intuitive Enterprise Asset Management platform. 

The Gloucestershire Energy from Waste (EfW) facility at Javelin Park is designed to significantly reduce the amount of municipal waste that is landfilled in Gloucestershire by using tried and tested technology. Aside from safely dealing with residual waste, which cannot readily be recycled or composted, the facility will generate the equivalent electricity to power 25,000 homes and will contribute to Gloucestershire’s renewable energy production.

The facility will divert over 90% of the County Council’s residual waste from landfill, preventing methane production, and producing sustainable aggregates. There will be a net reduction in CO2 equivalent emissions through running the facility as compared with continued landfilling.

Urbaser Balfour Beatty identified Maintec exhibitor Ultimo as the best choice, due its combined Maintenance & Safety Management within a single intuitive approach. The Ultimo Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) System is used to manage all assets and processes. The basis for an entire organisation is the wealth of information gained by registering all data, on maintenance, both planned and unplanned. But also everything concerning Environment, Health and Safety (EHS), meetings with others, your buildings and installations. It helps planning, both for the short-term and the long-term.

"At Ultimo we feel that a Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS) is really worth its weight in gold when it links operational information to management information," says Vos. "One of the chief reasons for using the software is the fact that it highlights the key available information, telling you about the ins and outs of the organisation. So you can give sensible responses. See vital signs, take vital action."

Ultimo is covering all assets including the building structure and 120 identified spaces within the facility site. The asset structure managed entirely within Ultimo covers over 2500 assets, all linked to a vendor with serial numbers and linked to a process function; there are over 9000 process functions in a structure of 280 equipment types. Over 800 spare parts – articles, are all linked to equipment or process functions.

“We have been impressed with how easily Ultimo can be customised to suit our requirements,” says EfW Maintenance Manager Andrew Evans.

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