Application examples: Manufacturing industry
Product examples: Automation components, Mechatronic systems
Value creation: Production & supply chain, Service, Other
Development stage: Market-ready/productive use, Market launch/piloting
Company size: 1 - 250 employees
Region:

What were the challenges to be solved and what specific benefits were achieved?

Predictive maintenance: monitoring of relevant operating parameters that indicate a system failure. These include, for example, filter breaks, compressed air fluctuations in the cleaning system and motor vibrations. Under certain circumstances, even consequential damage can be effectively avoided in this way.

The ESTA product FILTOWER 4.0 is the first extraction system on the market that together with a frequency converter, the self-developed control concept ESTA EasyControl and a patent pending volumetric flow measurement, saves up to 50 % power during operation. Furthermore, sensors in the raw and clean gas area ensure air quality monitoring, which enables automatic and requirement-oriented readjustment of the drive power. Thanks to the integrated network and protocol function, all the information is always available via remote monitoring anywhere in the world - both for the customer and for ESTA as the system manufacturer, if the customer permits this. If special customer requirements call for an adjustment of ventilation parameters, this can now be done in the vast majority of cases without a cost-intensive service deployment. Wearing parts such as filters can be exchanged situatively and in the context of measured values - there is no need for a general replacement scheduled according to operating hours. This reduces operating costs for the customer.

How can the Industrie 4.0 approach be described?

ESTA’s solution approach cannot be broken down to a single technology. Rather, a holistic concept lies behind the Industry 4.0 application shown, which takes into account the physics of ventilation systems as well as technology and energy efficiency. Only through this symbiosis does an Industry 4.0 solution become a real customer benefit.

"By the term "Industry 4.0", ESTA understands not just the digitisation of the product range, but it is more about the overall concept of physics, technology and energy efficiency which can only reach its full potential in a networked world. This has been translated into a real customer benefit in this project." - Andreas Klingler, Embedded Systems and Innovation.

What could be achieved?

  • Higher availability compared to state-of-the-art technology (unforeseen downtimes are reduced, manufacturing quality and planning security for customers increase - > predictive maintenance approach)
  • Extended service life for wearing parts such as filters and drive
  • Maintenance and service costs are reduced by intelligent remote monitoring
  • Determination of all relevant operating data by integrated sensors
  • Integrated network and protocol function allows remote access and monitoring of all operating data worldwide
  • Access to all operating data by the user himself
  • ESTA EasyControl control system in combination with frequency converter saves up to 50 % power compared to competitor systems with conventional differential pressure control
  • Consistent further development and implementation of the control and sensor technology into other ESTA products, even for large systems of > 100 kW

What measures have been taken to achieve the solution?

  • In a first step, the physics behind the extraction technology were re-examined. The systematic physical analysis of the extraction process has enabled innovative new measurement procedures to be established (volume flow measurement, dust measurement)
  • In a second step, our own control concept ( EasyControl ) was developed, which regulates the extraction systems with sophisticated sensors in their optimal operating point with energy and resource efficiency
  • This control concept now forms the basis for an holistic Industry 4.0 concept. It allows the networking, control and monitoring of all Industrie 4.0-capable systems with real customer benefits.

What can others learn from it?

Digitisation should never lose sight of the actual process or the customer. Industry 4.0 should not aim at the mere digitisation of the product, but should ultimately generate genuine customer benefits.