PROJECTS
Solutions combining know-how and expertise to detect diagnose and predict malfunctioning of systems and equipment to optimise performance and extend life cycles.
One of the main focuses of a balance sheet is to feature optimised levels of equipment performance and extended life cycles. This is also the goal IK4-TEKNIKER has set out to achieve via its Smart Asset Management (SAM) approach.
The ultimate objective is to detect, diagnose and predict cases of malfunctioning in systems (usually mechatronic). Consequently, IK4-TEKNIKER has made know-how and expertise converge to deliver maximum maintenance returns by increasing the availability of assets, extending their life cycles and reducing operating costs. This has given rise to an in-house methodology featuring the SAM Guardian and SAM Monitor platforms.
The SAM Guardian platform that has been applied to achieve these goals is based on the following steps:
- An expert analysis, with a track record of thirty years of work in the field of Condition Monitoring based on oil analyses which fully endorses IK4-TEKNIKER’s extensive experience in this area.
- Detection of anomalies: Expert knowledge and data analysis have been jointly addressed to identify failure symptoms and potential problems involving lubricated components and assets.
- Diagnosis: Feeding lubricant analyses and diagnoses into operational data to obtain a better diagnosis of a problem and disclose its root causes.
- Prognosis: Building predictive models to anticipate potential failures by analysing, processing and combining multiple operation and condition data.
- Transformation: Adapting and upgrading maintenance and operation strategies based on criteria and results obtained in previous stages.
In this respect, it is necessary to emphasize how easy it is nowadays to connect machines or systems connected to a cloud. Connectivity of this kind greatly facilitates co-operation between suppliers of equipment and specialised services and users in terms of optimising operation and maintenance.
What is also becoming increasingly more feasible is the inclusion of a certain amount of intelligence in the product itself to improve how it operates based on experience acquired in the process or gained and shared by similar products. This intelligence, SAM Monitor, provides the foundation for cyber-physical systems (CPS), the basic Smart Asset Management enabling technology.
This methodology offers solutions for:
- User companies, handling assets for which maintenance is a critical factor as occurs, for instance, in the case of wind farms.
- Companies that supply maintenance solutions and whose aim is to improve technological capabilities. An example of this can be found in Atten2, an IK4-TEKNIKER spin-off.
- Companies interested in developing mechatronic products and attaching added value to their products by implementing condition monitoring and self-diagnosis know-how. Collaborative actions of this kind are currently in progress with generic machine manufacturers, suppliers of critical components for wind turbines and, for instance, in the case of aeronautical components, with landing gear manufacturers.
