Monitoring and analysis of data captured from industrial equipment for diagnostic purposes

Preventative maintenance is a key consideration for equipment manufacturers. In industries such as mining, oil & gas and rail, the site operators prioritise minimising disruption caused by downtime which leads to significant losses in terms of revenue and damage to reputation. Ensuring equipment is healthy is therefore a major concern for all stakeholders to ensure continued reliable operation of a site. Current methods of delivering such diagnostics typically form part of a SCADA suite which takes a site-wide approach to displaying information. While correct use of these suites has shown to bring benefits to both customer and supplier, it can be argued that they are not suitable for customers with small scale implementations, especially given their expensive nature and difficulty to configure. SCADA systems are also prone to being ineffective when troubleshooting low-level equipment related problems, especially in scenarios where automated equipment is deployed in remote sites for extended periods. In such cases, service engineers report scenarios where alarm logs were too full to effectively analyse and draw meaningful conclusions from. The aim of this project is to design and develop a solution that delivers enhanced product support through diagnostics and preventative maintenance. A graphical interface will be developed for engineers that displays technical information about equipment, aiding the troubleshooting process and reducing time spent on-site. A report-based graphical interface will cater for non-technical customers, providing an intuitive display of how healthy the system is. The report will also provide advice to aid with decision making when equipment is not being used optimally or is approaching the end of its life. Equipment manufacturers can take advantage of the solution to improve relationships with existing customers, appeal to new customers and generate a new revenue stream through enhanced support programmes. The solution is designed to recognise that continued site operation is of paramount importance for a customer. Production environments impose stringent safety restrictions which restricts invasive access to equipment when it is operating. A non-invasive wireless access mechanism is therefore a key requirement to ensure that downtime is minimised.