A pump manufacturer and an IT service provider based in Karlsruhe have been honoured with this year’s Allianz Industry 4.0 Award for a jointly developed IoT solution.
With the help of the monitoring system, industrial pumps can be reliably and seamlessly checked, monitored and analysed during operation, even in very remote locations. The award was presented at the Startup the Future event on 22 November 2023 in Stuttgart.
Monitoring is becoming increasingly important
The continuous operation of pump systems in critical applications is associated with high monitoring and maintenance costs. Recording operating parameters such as volume flow, temperature or pressure often requires expensive and high-maintenance instrumentation.
“Our pumps meter and convey expensive and sensitive fluids. For this reasons, our customers have very high expectations in terms of process reliability. Over the past few years, we have acquired a great deal of monitoring expertise for our pumps”, explained Moritz Pastow, Program Manager Digital Services & IoT at LEWA GmbH.
The IoT system designed and implemented together with generic.de allows LEWA’s expertise in diagnostics to be shared with end customers automatically and based on key figures using specially developed algorithms. Fault conditions are output in plain text in a user-friendly way and with precise fault localisation. At the same time, the technology forms the basis for a whole range of other possible applications, such as predictive maintenance, intelligent energy management, remote service and performance analyses.
Precise monitoring even in remote locations
The sensors used have to fulfil a number of requirements: they must ensure high-frequency data acquisition at 1,000 Hz even in high-pressure applications up to 1,000 bar with highly toxic, extremely hot or cold, explosive and abrasive fluids. The industrial pumps are integrated into processes that have to function 24/7.
“Technologically, the project was extremely demanding. We are not just dealing with standard sensor values here. Up to 2,000 signals per second must be tapped and processed cleanly. In addition, online and offline connectivity was a major challenge”, reported Michael Puder, CEO of generic.de software technologies AG.
To make matters worse, many of the pumps provided by LEWA are used in the most remote locations in the world – for example on offshore oil platforms. The system must therefore be able to enable continuous monitoring even without a permanent internet connection.
Allianz Industry 4.0 Award promotes digital transformation
In addition to individual technical innovations, the Allianz Industrie 4.0 Award focuses on efforts in relation to digital transformation. This is a new competition organised by the Allianz Industrie 4.0 network, which was initiated and is supported by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Coordinated by the VDMA, the award is a continuation of the competition “100 Places for Industry 4.0 in Baden-Württemberg”, which was launched in 2015. Both individual solutions such as the “Smart Monitoring” system and approaches to the digital transformation of entire companies are honoured.
