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Keeping An Eye On Plant Machinery - The Wireless Way
The U.S. Department of Energy and three industrial partners are testing the use
of wireless networks in evaluating the performance of plant machinery, says a
report in the Mechanical Engineering magazine.
The participants in the $18 million research program are trying to determine
if wireless technology could bring cost benefits as well as efficiency gains
in monitoring plant equipment such as electric motors and piping systems.
Many industrial facilities today monitor plant performance using sensors
that are hardwired to the machinery. “But wiring in plants is expensive, mainly
due to the high cost of labor,” says Mechanical Engineering. “Wireless
mesh networks are the latest hope in eliminating this costly barrier to abundant
information.”
DOE is interested in the link between the precise data delivered by wireless
systems and energy conservation. DOE estimates that inexpensive and continuous
motor monitoring could produce energy savings of 122 trillion Btu by the
year 2020, reports Mechanical Engineering.
Wired sensors as well as the new wireless networks monitor an array of performance
conditions and parameters, including heat loss, material wear and degradation,
and vibration.
The DOE partners in the research undertaking are General Electric, Eaton
Corp., and Honeywell Inc. GE is investigating wireless motor monitoring,
while Eaton
and Honeywell are focusing on data acquisition and process control, respectively.
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