Maintenance and repair of mechanical systems can create an expensive logistical problem for global companies and their regional offices. By way of a solution, a number of companies have been developing and implementing add-ons for systems that give suppliers the ability to monitor their products within a customers’ plant and even repair them remotely. This is providing significant benefits for suppliers, saving time, manpower resources and money. This is also an increasingly attractive option for manufacturers, happy to see time lost to machine faults reduced. 

This approach is particularly desirable for today’s manufacturers facing global competition. Companies across a broad spectrum of industries require increasingly up-to-date information about their production output, the efficiency of their processes and problems on the lines. In our global world, mobile phones and the internet have been able to provide integration between business divisions separated geographically, but until recent times, they have not been able to provide real-time actionable data that could result in the instant diagnosis and repair of a piece of machinery or module by an engineer on the other side of the world. This is where ‘smart’ software, and hardware, is able to provide a solution.

M2M technology

Utilising internet communications M2M or machine-to-machine technology gives Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and machine manufacturers the ability to remotely monitor the performance of their equipment. This means that should a particular module within a machine start to fail, the manufacturer of the part or machine is able to identify, diagnose and, in some cases, repair the fault remotely. This also enables the OEM to gather performance details and keep a log of components that are under-performing or causing ongoing issue. These can then be addressed, when designing and developing later models. OEMs can also, as Mr Gary Mintchell, Editor in Chief at Automation World Magazine, explains, “...Use this technology to sell additional maintenance and support services to customers who have seen their engineering staff reduced either through retirement or cost-cutting moves.” 

One example of a company that has benefited from utilising this technology is Herber Engineering. Based in Värnamo, Sweden, the company makes machines for the cold-forming of tubes and profiles. These systems are used predominantly in the automobile industry and have recently been fitted with a new control system, developed in collaboration with Bosch Rexroth. This new system completely revolutionises the way technical support can be offered and administered, as Herber’s design manager Anders Alrutz explains, “From our office at Värnamo, we can go in and take over a forming machine anywhere in the world. We can operate it remotely and control its operation right down to the individual valve or servo-motor. [This means] the attendance time for a service engineer is basically the time it takes for the customer to call Herber on the phone.” 

Should a problem occur on one of its machines, the new control system means that Herber can simply dial into the machine and perform diagnosis and even repair of the system, drastically reducing the cost of technical support for both parties leading to a more efficient use of personnel. Another company benefiting from this system is AMF Reece, a leading specialist sewing machine manufacturer based in Prostejov, in the Czech Republic. The company’s President Cenk Oflaz says the ability to remotely address issues and upgrade its systems is currently a strong focus within its R&D department, “Until around 10 years ago there were very few electronic sewing machines. It was all mechanical and so much slower, much noisier and much less user friendly. Electronics have come so far in our industry that it is now possible to upgrade or enhance the function of a sewing machine simply by sending the customer a software upgrade. In fact we’re currently developing a system in-house for servicing a customer’s machine via an ethernet connection.” 

Elaborating on this innovation, Mr Oflaz continues, “If the customer plugs the machine into an ethernet connection we can see on-line what is wrong with their machine and remotely change parameters and test various things. Our goal in the near future, for our next generation of machines, is to be able to remotely identify problems and possibly fix them. We already know this is possible, it is just a matter of time for us.” 

Another wireless system worth watching, although not linking machines via internet connections, is short-range radio standard ZigBee, which is paving the way for a number of wireless applications, personal and industrial, with its long battery life, low-power solution for transmitting data and controlling and monitoring appliances. ZigBee, which provides exciting possibilities for the future of wireless monitoring and control, and is simpler and cheaper than other WPANs such as Bluetooth, is a ‘specification for a suite of high level communication protocols using small, low-power digital radios based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard for wireless personal area networks, targeted at radio-frequency (RF) applications that require a low data rate, long battery life, and secure networking’. The applications of ZigBee enabled devices range from home automation to industrial control.

Evolving technology

One of the main factors behind the growth of remote diagnostics and repair has been the advent of super high-speed broadband, Mr Mintchell confirms, “The technology for connecting has evolved over the years from slow and unreliable dial-up connections over telephone lines to today’s dedicated Internet wiring.” This has massively enhanced the speed and reliability of connections and opened up doors that could only have been dreamed about in the days of 56k dial-up connections. 

In addition there is the advent of wi-fi technology. Most new laptops and PDAs are fitted with network cards able to receive high-speed wireless internet and many new consumer technology products, the Nintendo Wii games console for example, are sold on the fact that they do not require messy cabling. This is a trend that hasn’t escaped machinery manufacturers, integrating wireless receivers and ethernet connections into their machinery, providing the ability to plug in wireless modules for potential future connectivity. 

The focus now, then, is for manufacturers to work towards integration of extra hardware and software from the very beginning of production, which opens up massive opportunities for future connectivity and possibilities for security and safety monitoring, diagnosis, control, maintenance and even repairs and a machinery manufacturer knowing, in some cases, that there is a fault before the line operator. Integrating such technology at the point of manufacture would mean that any new machines being produced would be M2M enabled and have diagnostic software in-built and that older generation machines could still, in most cases, be retro-fitted with the required add-on. We might still be a long way from the ubiquity of intelligent devices being a reality but it is interesting to glimpse what will, it is difficult to doubt, be the future of industrial machinery.