Going paperless into Maintenance 4.0

Digital servicing and maintenance in processing plants reduces costs and increases availability. An industrial wireless LAN infrastructure in the production plant is an essential requirement for keeping smart devices such as tablets connected to the production network.

Particularly in small and mid-size plants, however, the cost and complexity of IT-WLAN systems is often a challenge. This is especially true if there is no trained IT staff to set them up and operate them.

One simple alternative is central management of the WLAN network, which can be administered by the MCR/control engineering group itself without having to forgo security. An example of this is cluster management. WLAN networks with up to 20 access points can be easily integrated centrally using the web interface of a WLAN access point.

In the K+S potash plant in Sigmundshall, Germany, the company-owned power plant has been repeatedly enlarged and modernized over many decades. As a result, parts of the plant, units and equipment have been marked and documented in completely different ways.

The introduction of uniform plant marking based on KKS has improved operational safety as well as occupational health and safety. Furthermore, this has simplified servicing and maintenance. The customer was particularly pleased with the introduction of the consistent classification system in connection with mobile devices, which allow for links to associated 2D flow charts (P&IDs) online. This has made on-the-job training of new employees significantly easier.

Digitization of plant documentation has also improved the availability of the documentation and prevents duplicate entries. Instead of wasting time searching through various binders, the complete documentation for all the plant parts is now immediately available using the QR code.

Just over two years ago, Phoenix Contact started the initial discussions with a municipal waste management agency about the upcoming cleanup of its wastewater treatment plant. These talks were the basis of the subsequent automation concept. The operator was particularly focused on consistent communication throughout the plant for condition-based maintenance. All systems were to be connected to the higher-level control system in the future.

Special attention was paid to the rotating scraper bridges of the individual water treatment stages. Thanks to the comprehensive implementation of WLAN access points, we have completely integrated each individual controller on the scraper bridges into the ethernet network. By implementing WLAN on the scraper bridge, the operator can save 2 to 3 maintenance processes per year, which were previously necessary to clean the slip rings. The economical integration of WLAN end devices even allows for later integration of additional system parts.

In the metropolis of Istanbul, a commercial producer of energy had the idea of generating electric power from methane. The methane is extracted from a landfill. It is produced in 520 wells in an area measuring 90 ha and generates almost 34 MW of electricity.

A service technician monitors the water level and gas pressure in the wells continuously. This process is no longer necessary at 14 of those wells, as the wireless Radioline system transmits the measured data to a central controller up to 4 km away at 2.4 GHz. Now, the customer can adapt the wireless system to its demands at any time and transmit data from additional wells if necessary.