SmartSheffield #20 - Alex Kelly: "IOT in a Factory"

Alex is an IoT and data specialist at Tinsley Bridge Group, which is a large local engineering and manufacturing firm, established in the 1850s. Alex describes his ongoing work to measure what is actually happening in such a large factory complex - from the temperature of large quenching tanks, to noise levels around specific machines.

For more, please visit: Tinsley Bridge

These slides were presented at SmartSheffield#20 on July 11th 2022 - please see the Event Website for videos of all the talks and to sign up to receive notification of future events.

Many thanks to Arup for hosting, as well as our regular sponsors: Pitch-In Project and Sheffield Digital.

Transcript

1. Tinsley Bridge Group world class engineering solutions…
2. 175 years Engineering Innovation Suspension spring-maker since 1841
3. Suspensions Automotive Rail Rolling Stock Defence Vehicles Engineering Solutions & Fabrication Fabrication & welding Site installation Assembly & site erection Design & Project Engineering Rail • Safety Critical Components • Systems Integration • Infrastructure Machine Knives Steel Mill Blades Scrap Shear Blades Guillotine Blades Machine Tool Slideways
4. Size of Tinsley Bridge site
5. Why now for IOT? • Businesses must stay competitive to survive and thrive • The economics of IOT • Cheap sensors and edge devices • Wireless technologies such as LORAWan take away need for power and networking (cheaper installation) • Open source software have made the entry point pretty much free from an operational point of view • The commercial software is coming of age. • E.g. mindsphere vs thingworx • Cloud service providers : IBM, Microsoft and AWS
6. • Network connectivity • Wireless hit and miss • Large steel components • EMF from equipment… • Fixed network difficult/expensive to install. • Large area (Ikea Sheffield) • Time consuming runs • Not nice areas to work in • Health and safety • Standard PPE equipment • Safety shoes • Ear protection • Eye protection • Gloves Factory Environment
7. www.tinsleybridge.co.uk Communication methods 7 Bandwidth Gbits/s Mbits/s Kbits/s Bits/s QR codes NFC RFID Bluetooth WiFi Ethernet 5G 4G 3G LoRa, Sigfox Satellite <1m <100km <100m <10km >100km Active RFID We use Ethernet because 1) there is heavy machine disrupting WiFi signal, 2) Power on Ethernet (48V)
8. Quench Tank Temperature www.tinsleybridge.co.uk LORAWan facts : •Its low power which means it can be run off battery, sometimes last upto 10 years when configured appropriately. •It can communicate up-to 7 KM in rural environments and 2 - 3km in urban. •Its good for small pieces of data like temperatures, humidity, distances, flow ect. •It isn't good for large data like pictures and videos. •its good in high interference environments Temperature & Relative Humidity: Transducer reports temperature and relative humidity of the local environment. Accelerometer: Configurable triggers allow the sensor to report if it has been moved. Applications include monitoring the opening of doors/drawers/cabinets. Light Detection: Light transducer reports the presence or absence of light using a configurable intensity threshold. Magnetic Switch: Digital On/Off sensing with an internal magnetic switch. Fix the sensor to a door frame and add a magnet to monitor activity. External Connection: External contacts connected with a short cable can be monitored for on/off states or used to count events. Add extra sensors here, or connect to water/electricity meter pulse outputs. Moisture Detection: Capacitive transducer mounted in the sensor case detects pooling water under the device, for flood or leak detection. Mount the sensor close to the floor in your basement to detect flooding.
9. Quench Tank Temperature www.tinsleybridge.co.uk
10. Sound levels www.tinsleybridge.co.uk ERS Sound datasheet measures : • Sound sensor / Peak + Average • dBa filtering • Always on – no missed sound events • Motion detection sensor (PIR) • Light sensor • Battery • Temperature sensor • Humidity sensor •
11. E-Coat www.tinsleybridge.co.uk
12. www.tinsleybridge.co.uk 12 The facility is initially built 20 years ago Suspension bars Flow schematic of an electrocoat paint (Baker and Low,2015)
13. E-Coat Sensors for data collection www.tinsleybridge.co.uk LORAWan DB18650 Electronic Flow Sensor Pressure Transmitter Siemens IoT2020 Intelligent Gateway ~£120 ~ £120 ~£90 ~£30
14. www.tinsleybridge.co.uk
15. www.tinsleybridge.co.uk Heat exchanger
16. www.tinsleybridge.co.uk Condition Monitor Prescriptive Analysis
17. Books to read