Top tools and technologies.

Rising energy costs and more stringent legislation guiding sustainable practices is spurring companies to re-evaluate processes and seek new tools and technologies to reduce waste and overcome challenges in today’s industrial environments.

The top three trends that are enhancing operational efficiency in today’s industrial environments are highlighted by Fluke. Challenges posed to industrial operations managers by the pandemic have now been superseded by the rising cost of energy, and the need to deliver on net zero ambitions. As the price of energy continues to increase, the need to reduce costs and deliver on shared sustainability goals intensifies for small-to-medium sized enterprises through to large corporations.

Paul Feenstra, Vice President Fluke EMEA, at Fluke said: “We are working together with our customers to help drive new initiatives to improve operations, increase efficiencies, and take reliability to a new level in the 21st century.”

1 Reducing energy costs with upgraded technology and cloud-based data monitoring.
Approximately 90% of all companies use compressed air in some aspect of their operation, such that it is often referred to as the fourth utility. Recent developments in industrial acoustic imaging technology have enabled the fast identification of leaks in compressed air systems used in industrial and manufacturing environments. Fluke’s ii900 Industrial Acoustic Imager features an array of microphones, providing visualisation of sound field within an expanded field-of-view and on a distance of up to 70 meters, that enables maintenance teams to visually locate air leaks very quickly and accurately in compressed air systems.

Beyond the improvement of rugged handheld tools, monitoring practices are also evolving with the use of internet-connected instruments. Analysis and data is captured on a cloud platform allowing operators to monitor the key performance indicators (KPI) of compressed air systems including energy, electric power, flow, pressure and leakage flow. Fluke’s LeakQ™ Report Generator creates detailed air compressor leak reports from images captured by Fluke ii900 or the ii910 Precision Acoustic Imager and calculates the energy savings once the leaks are repaired.

2 Using data to deliver predictive maintenance.
For generations, maintenance professionals have used preventive maintenance to avoid equipment failures and turned to reactive maintenance when assets failed. With the emergence of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies, maintenance professionals can now connect tools, software and sensors to collect, store and analyse multiple data sources in one place. The pandemic accelerated investment in technologies that make remote monitoring possible. The technology enables reliability and maintenance teams to meet up-time requirements no matter how fluid on-site staffing might be. The trend for remote monitoring will continue, with small scale operations turning to remote condition monitoring services.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have held the promise to quickly identify trends and adapt quickly to changing operational conditions. Software armed with prescriptive analytics is finally meeting up with modern condition monitoring hardware to spark a revolution in the use of AI/ML in maintenance operations. Now a new race has emerged to pair that hardware and software with ML and AI algorithms. Companies, like Fluke, are working to combine technologies so that the software can identify trends, recognise data patterns and make specific recommendations for equipment maintenance.

3 Digital SI speeds integration of critical equipment measurements.
The accelerated uptake in digital measurement solutions for industrial applications can save time and money, whilst facilitating a shift towards predictive maintenance for systems. Although modern measurement digital devices are typically not fit-and-forget solutions, the increase in digital measurement solutions paves the way for verification technologies that can help to reduce the maintenance burden on personnel, without compromising on accuracy or reliability.

Digital SI (International System of Units), an initiative created as part of the industry 4.0 revolution, relates to the creation of a globalised system to transmit calibration certification information electronically. This is critical as the exchange of data and the data itself are the basis of highly automated industrial processes. The system ensures measurement traceability from all calibrations performed and enables sharing of information in a paperless manner. This speeds up the integration of measurements that can be performed using critical test equipment as part of an integrated factory enhancing maintenance efficiency and plant efficiency.

“The tests we have faced within the last 24-36 months is delivering a growing awareness among top management that fundamental changes in maintenance best practice need to occur in order to protect the bottom line,” said Paul Feenstra.

“This is music to the ears of progressive industrial managers who have been advocating for investments to improve efficiencies and reliability of systems. Now is the time to make the case to adopt innovative technologies, tools, and processes to ensure your company maintains a competitive edge and thrives in this new environment.”

@FlukeCorp @NapierPR #PAuto #TandM

Pioneering medical application for industrial imager.

A pioneering application of the Fluke™ ii900 Industrial Acoustic Imager has enabled a world leader in patient care to improve safety levels across multiple hospital sites while also being able to meet its own demanding sustainability targets.

The Mediclinic Group, an international hospital group with operations in South Africa, Namibia, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates, is focused on continually improving patient outcomes. It is also committed to maximising safety levels in all its hospitals while improving sustainability to ensure a positive impact on the environment.

When a specialist thermography consultancy, KN Thermography, was called in to inspect the thermal efficiency of a South African Mediclinic hospital, it was using the Fluke ii900 Industrial Acoustic Imager. Discussions between the thermography company and Mediclinic Southern Africa’s Sustainability Manager Petrus Swanepoel quickly identified the possibility of using the equipment to detect leaks of medical gases within the hospital.

Reducing waste
Mediclinic was aware that by fixing leaks in the distribution of oxygen and nitrous oxide across all their hospitals it could not only make significant improvements to patient safety but could also substantially reduce its carbon footprint and boost its sustainability levels by reducing the use of natural resources.

Nitrous oxide (N2O) and medical oxygen (O2) are used extensively in hospitals. High levels of energy are used to separate air and produce medical gasses. Preventing leaks in hospitals has positive implications for the environment but a significant leak of either gas in a hospital can represent a serious health hazard.

The ii900 Industrial Acoustic Imager has been used to carry out rapid visual inspections on all pipes that send nitrous oxide from hospital basements to operating theatres and deliver oxygen to patient beds. This has enabled all leaks to be dealt with, reducing wastage percentages, and boosting Mediclinic hospitals’ levels of patient safety.

Improving sustainable operations
Committed to the efficient use of natural resources to improve patient care within Mediclinic, Petrus Swanepoel, said: “There is a pressing need for companies around the world to act more sustainably and the Fluke ii900 Industrial Acoustic Imager enabled us to do this by minimising the leakage of any medical gases and our increased use of oxygen during to the pandemic, with its associated costs, focused our attention on the benefits of identifying leaks. We are delighted that the equipment has been able to make such a big difference to patient safety and to minimising wastage.”

Francesco Pagin of Fluke added: “The ii900 Industrial Acoustic Imager has become highly popular as a tool for detecting leaks in compressed air systems, so this innovative application at the Mediclinic hospitals for identifying medical gas leakage is a really interesting new area of use. It opens up opportunities for maintenance and sustainability teams across a range of other sectors to boost efficiencies and sustainability levels by incorporating this powerful yet easy to use tool into their inspection and testing regimes.”

With its seven-inch LCD touchscreen and battery life of at least six hours, the Fluke ii900 Industrial Acoustic Imager is designed for use in range of challenging environments where testing can be carried out from a safe distance. Using a SoundMap™ on a visual image for rapid identification of discharge or leaks between frequencies of 2-100 kHZ, the ii900 makes video recordings of up to five minutes.

@FlukeCorp @Mediclinic #Medical #PAuto #SouthAfrica