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Wireless Monitoring of 24 VDC Quality and Temperature in ŠKODA AUTO a.s.

FOXON has developed a wireless data collection solution for ŠKODA AUTO Mladá Boleslav. It's already been implemented in three of its plants. We're going to show you what problems in the plants our solution helped to solve and how. You're going see that it's suitable for small applications as well.

ŠKODA AUTO a.s., Mladá Boleslav

skodaEvery year the biggest Czech enterprise produces over a million cars worldwide. Its main factory in Mladá Boleslav provides jobs for about 23,000 people and makes such models as FABIA, RAPID, OCTAVIA and KAROQ. The company's continued success can also be attributed to the implementation of modern processes and systems that help streamline production and optimise maintenance.

What Inspired the Project?

ŠKODA AUTO's Assembly Plant

The assembly plant houses a large number of control systems and electrical devices, which implies a high number of power supplies.

To maximise uptime and minimise failures, assembly requires stable 24 VDC supply voltage. In addition, locating an unreliable power supply among so many supplies in such a large plant can present a challenge.

ŠKODA AUTO's Toolroom

In the toolroom, maintenance staff are faced with the problems that any other production plant has to deal with. Temperature in control cabinets, especially in the summer, can rise to such a high level that it can cause damage to PLCs and other components.

ŠKODA AUTO's Welding Plant

The welding plant is also dependent on stable 24 VDC supply voltage. A power supply whose voltage fluctuates significantly can cause damage to devices on the shop floor. Furthermore, frequent extensions and upgrades to the network can result in changes to power supply load.

Maintenance personnel thus need a solution that enables them to carry out a health check on a given power supply and determine if it could cause trouble before it's too late.

The Solution

ŠKODA AUTO's Assembly Plant

The plant has been equipped with 30 FIOT Wireless Sensors that monitor tens of power supplies. Every 5 seconds the sensors transfer live data from the power supplies to a gateway, which then passes the data on to higher applications. Controls engineers can view live as well as historical data on a large-screen display and in an application on a tablet (also providing the plant layout). The solution enables them to have near real-time access to information on supply voltage status and development.

FIOT sensor v rozvadeci2

ŠKODA AUTO's Toolroom

Control cabinets in the toolroom are also equipped with FIOT Sensors. The sensors feature an integrated thermometer which enables maintenance technicians to monitor temperature fluctuations real-time. If there is a dramatic temperature rise, they can take immediate action.

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ŠKODA AUTO's Welding Plant

The welding plant is also fitted out with FIOT Sensors. However, they aren't used for continuous monitoring there. As they support fast installation and easy mobility, they serve as a diagnostic tool. Maintenance staff use them to carry out diagnostics of potential problem points (i.e. power supplies that might be the cause of the problem). These problem points are monitored for 24 VDC quality for a few days. Sensors are then easily removed and installed elsewhere.

Its Main Benefits

ŠKODA AUTO's Assembly Plant

The most obvious benefit is easy deployment of the solution and its scalability. What controls engineers especially appreciate is the alarms feature. When a threshold value is reached, the screen displays an alert, thus allowing them to act on undesirable voltage fluctuations as soon as they occur.

ŠKODA AUTO's Toolroom

In this deployment, FIOT Sensors are part of comprehensive condition monitoring. All collected data is integrated into a single database and a visualisation application. There is no need for another way of collecting it. Maintenance technicians are provided with a single interface offering all essential information, enabling them to make connections while studying it.

ŠKODA AUTO's Welding Plant

The main benefit is easy mobility of individual components. The solution allows maintenance personnel to perform diagnostics of a potential problem point simply by connecting a sensor.

How Does FIOT Data Collection Work?

All the three ŠKODA AUTO projects above rely on the FIOT Sensor and subsequent visualisation of collected data through a web interface or a mobile application. Every user that is granted access to the system can view live as well as historical data on their computer or tablet. The value of this data can be unlocked by both maintenance personnel and the management.

FIOT Starter Kit aplikace

As the solution is modular, we can provide extra sensors to meet your requirements. When added, new sensors (and along with them new dashboards) will automatically display in the web interface. Apart from voltage and temperature, FIOT Sensors can collect other values.

 

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What's the FIOT Sensor?

The FIOT Sensor is a wireless, battery-free sensor which is installed on the DIN rail and is powered by the power supply it's monitoring or by an external supply.

It's the key component of FIOT Wireless Monitoring. Every 5 seconds it sends collected data to a gateway via the 868 MHz frequency (independently of WiFi). The gateway then passes the data on to databases and higher applications.

fiot starter kit web 2The sensor can collect several values:

  • 24 VDC supply voltage quality
  • Internal temperature (temperature inside the sensor)
  • External temperature via the 1-Wire Thermometer
  • Analogue/digital input values
  • Three-axis accelerometer values

Analogue input enables you to measure vibrations, pressure, flow, revolutions and so on. Digital input allows you to count the number of pieces produced or the number of times a relay has opened and closed contacts. The FIOT Sensor integrates both these functionalities. So it's only up to you which type of data you need.

Feel Free to Try It Out

All the deployments above share a common element – the FIOT Sensor. The sensor is one of the key components of a number of condition monitoring projects (FIOT) that FOXON has developed for its customers. Nevertheless, if you don't need a large-scale project, you can still try our solution out. The FIOT sensor is part of the FIOT Starter Kit. The kit includes two FIOT Sensors, a gateway, a web visualisation interface, a mobile application and some additional accessories.

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