This week’s IoT use case focuses on the petrochemical market. This use case is from Texmark Chemicals which is using technology from Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Aruba to automatically collect real-time data of critical pumps on the plant floor.
Without technology, pumps must be spot checked on a month-to-month basis to detect any potential flaws. However, with IoT sensors installed, pumps are monitored to gauge pressure, temperature, and vibration, in real time, all the time, in order to determine its operational health.
As with all IoT sensors, the data is fed into an application with computer-modeling functionality that enables the predictive maintenance. In this case, the IoT application determines how soon a particular pump might fail based on the specific chemical being used, the temperature and its vibration levels compared against historic results with other pumps.
The Texmark Chemicals team implemented the IoT solution in small steps across multiple stages. This is a best practice for IoT implementations. Here are the components used for the initial stage:
- Six Aruba access points for wifi coverage across its 7.5-acre facility.
- ClearPass authentication
- HPE’s EL400 Edgeline computers to manage the collected IoT sensor data.
- A 3D scan of the plant for asset management
- HPE Edgeline Converged IoT platform software that captures the multiple data.
- HPE Pointnext Services for installation services
- HPE Micro Datacenter to host the EdgeLine converged platform and will host new DCS system
Stage two may involve:
- Installing sensors on Texmark’s two most crucial pieces of equipment
- The launch of a “connected worker” platform to provide employees with relevant information on an app-based handheld device or integrated hard hat specific to the pump located in their vicinity.
- The launch of a total asset-management platform to provide real-time, historic and relevant information.
You can view more details about this IoT use case at www.iotjournal.com
