Key points
Imagine your television set didn’t have a remote control. Now imagine the TV was located at the opposite end of a huge manufacturing shop floor. Finally, imagine you had 100 TV screens that can only be operated manually.
This is a nightmare-scenario process engineers would have to deal with on a daily basis, were it not for intelligent remote data access.
Here, Jez Watson, managing director of CD Automation UK, explains how remote data access helps solve the top five challenges process engineers face.
Remote monitoring is not new to the automation world. More than two decades ago, the first remote monitoring systems were installed using dial-up phone connections.
Over the years, these early systems became more and more advanced and turned into hardwired Ethernet connections with higher speed and accuracy.
Today’s technologies are taking everything one step further, turning into complex wireless networks and smart devices that allow remote monitoring and control.
The rise of wireless and 4G technology goes beyond the consumer world, with its smart phones, Google Glass and virtual reality head sets. The installed base of the Internet of Things is estimated to reach 212 billion by 2020, including approximately 30 billion connected devices the same year.
This is all fine and dandy for all technophiles and gadget lovers out there, but the digital shift has also completely reshaped the way industry operates.
Over the last two decades, industrial companies have become significantly more efficient by integrating digital technologies and intelligent automation solutions into the manufacturing process.
The most impressive part of the story is the hallucinatory speed at which technology is developing and unearthing hidden benefits that engineers wouldn’t have dared dream of just ten years ago.
Quick guide for Remote Data Access
The implementation of industrial automation solutions and advanced machines is normally motivated by three challenges: making the production line more efficient, safer and more flexible.
One of the technologies that industry has found particularly useful when responding to these three challenges is remote data access. This feature allows designated personnel to access data stored by data loggers within the plant from anywhere in the world, using any device that has internet access, including smart phones, tablets and laptops.
Data loggers can service remote analogue and binary inputs or outputs modules, measuring transducers, inverters, microcontrollers, recorders, display panels, HMI panels and pretty much any other device used in industry that has the option for communications.
Data loggers with remote access, like Lumel’s SM61 product are used to monitor key information like temperature, flow or pressure across industries, including in the utilities, water and waste, pharmaceutical or manufacturing sectors.
They are normally integrated in systems for monitoring and recording power network parameters. It is also common to find data loggers on temperature controllers.
Remote data access saves time and costs by suppressing geographical distances; it provides a real-time, accurate picture of what is happening in the plant at any given time.
Most importantly, remote data access gives production engineers and process managers the peace of mind that everything is running smoothly.
Remote data access can solve the top five challenges process managers deal with on a daily basis: uncertainty, system security, lack of time, information and alarms.
No more uncertainty
In critical processes and continuous production in particular, the ability to access production data at any time, from any place, is key.
Critical and potentially dangerous situations could occur at any point, regardless of the time of day, number of staff present or whether the production manager is on the premises or not. This situation results in a state of constant anxiety for many process managers.
Having safety measures in place is crucial, but the ability to check whether things are running smoothly at any given time, is priceless.
Remote data access is the best way to monitor and manage operations on particularly large sites or when process engineers and managers are off-site. In manufacturing, even a few minutes or seconds of foresight can save downtime and costs.
Data loggers with www server practically allows process managers to be in several places at the same time, which comes in very handy when the person in charge manages numerous sites or does a lot of travelling.
By remotely accessing the data logger, managers can easily check if, for example, applications are starting and stopping or heating up and cooling down at specified times.
Saving precious time
Process managers are always busy, which is why installing any new product should be as straight forward and as fast as possible.
These data loggers can be installed without stopping the entire application, which saves downtime and can be fitted on a temperature controller, for example, simply by connecting the wires for RS-485 and applying power to them. These products can also be connected using wireless technology, to simplify the process even further.
Remote data access is, by definition, meant to save the process manager a journey to the control point. To help save even more time, the capacity of these data loggers are particularly high and they can read up to 2500 values from up to 100 devices, each with 25 registers.
As a result, all the information a process manager needs is stored in one place and can be easily accessed at any point, from any place and by several users simultaneously.
The user-friendly application for data configuration allows the user to visualise data in a variety of ways, including synoptic maps, charts and tables in any web browser. The real time clock function also allows for accurate data collection and storage, even if power is lost for any reason.
Security
Any data logger with remote access should have a strict security protocol in place. Reliable products assign a unique ID and password to each user, limiting the access to company information in the case of any non-authorised personnel or external parties.
The password is needed to visualise data, to make any changes using product software or Ethernet, and to send files through built-in FTP web servers.
By reinforcing these security measures through staff training and a firm company policy on remote data access, any business can ensure it has all the benefits of the technology and none of the risks.
Real-time and historic information
Another benefit of data acquisition modules is the availability of real-time and historic information, which can be used to monitor the efficiency of different applications. The historic data feature also allows process managers to analyse the state of the system before an alarm goes off.
By correlating historic data, any process can be made more efficient and overall operations can be significantly improved.
In the case of Lumel’s SM61, information is stored on the 1 GB flash memory. When the internal memory card is full, the data can be downloaded and saved or deleted by the FTP server.
Trustworthy alerts
Even when process managers can remotely access real-time information, full peace of mind is rarely achieved unless there is also a trustworthy alert and alarm system in place to give them complete peace of mind: a real-time e-mail alert feature will allows designated users to instantly receive an e-mail alert when values go beyond parameters – for example, if equipment is overheating or not hot enough – and when alarms go off.
Up to 25 alarms can be defined, depending on the nature and parameters of the application and in the instance of the SM61 all alarms are visible on the online portal and the system can send an e-mail and/or set relay for each alarm plus it has two relay outputs or two binary outputs.
Remote data access has always been a necessity for industry. However, the increasing number of wireless connected devices like smart phones, tablets and intelligent automation solutions has created the perfect storm for remote data access to be adopted on a large scale across sectors.
The cost of downtime in industry can be anything from a few hundred pounds to tens of thousands of pounds per hour. With remote data access, if anything is unusual or goes wrong in the process, the right people are immediately notified so they can make an informed decision and take action.
Unlike a missing TV remote control, which is slightly inconvenient, when it comes to industry, the question all companies should be asking themselves when considering the purchase of remote data access equipment is this: “Can we risk not knowing?”
