Electricity and Control June 2024

COVER ARTICLE

Remote asset condition monitoring using IIoT tools

A sset condition monitoring, anomaly detection and fail ure prediction are becoming more critical in all indus tries, but the real-time monitoring of assets in remote loca tions can become very expensive. This cost hurdle can now be overcome by leveraging the power of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies which allows proactive con dition monitoring of valuable assets, even in remote areas. IIOT & MQTT – essential tools The heart of this capability is the MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) protocol – a secure, lightweight, low footprint publish/subscribe messaging protocol designed for low bandwidth and high latency networks, allowing a single server to process and transmit one million messages in a second with a millisecond level of latency! At the centre of the solution is an MQTT broker that is accessible over the internet. For data acquisition in remote locations and at plant level, an ‘edge instance’ is required to collect data, and to publish the data to the broker. The MQTT protocol works on a publish/subscribe principal with MQTT brokers playing post-office for the data. Security of the system is assured by several features. - No open inbound ports are required on the plant side if you only want to publish data. - Multiple edge instances connecting to single or multi ple brokers allow for zoning, segregation and secure conduits based on the IEC 62443 architecture. - All transmitted data is encrypted and user and pass word authentication are required. Sparkplug B is a specification for MQTT that defines how data is sent and received allowing context to be created at the lowest level at the plant or sensor. Usage is expand ing rapidly, as many software OEMs are enabling MQTT on their technology. Real-time remote online monitoring of industrial assets MQTT allows remote asset monitoring from anywhere on the globe and includes: - Dashboards, recording history, trends, reports, notifi cations and alarms - Information available on a PC, tablet or smart phones - Allows end clients access to information via cloud or on-premises architecture. Any type of asset characteristic can be monitored and recorded, be it vibration, stress, temperature, flow, pres sure or energy consumption or behaviour. Offline condition monitoring with automated upload Mobile applications and devices are available for offline

monitoring, with the ability to buffer and upload data once a network connection becomes available.

High level KPI dashboards Augmenting existing control systems by adding additional IIOT information pro vides an overall picture of plant performance visualised on high level KPI dashboards. An industrial information and analytics platform based on a central MQTT broker architecture allows the acquisi tion and collation of information from multiple systems, in struments and application to: - Eliminate point-to-point spaghetti interfaces between applications - Break down data silos - Provide a central place for users and applications to access information via standardised communication protocols. By leveraging the power of IoT technologies, particularly IIOT and MQTT, organisations can now proactively moni tor the condition and performance of their valuable assets, even in remote areas. □

Using the MQTT networking platform and IIoT technologies, organisations can monitor plant and assets from anywhere.

For more information contact Gerhard Greeff, Divisional Manager PM&C, Iritron. Mobile: +27 (0)82 654 0290 Email: Gerhard.greeff@iritron.co.za Visit: www.iritron.co.za

JUNE 2024 Electricity + Control

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