Advanced diagnostics to cut machine downtime 20 October 2014

New diagnostics on ABB's variable speed drive range are being claimed to reduce machine and process downtime by speeding up investigation times.

ABB makes the point that drive trips occur to protect the driven machinery from faults that could cause damage and extended loss of production time.

The automation giant's diagnostics are designed to prevent such trips fomr happening but also to steer evasive action by providing early warnings.

They also provide maintenance triggers based on operating data to remind engineering teams when servicing needs to be carried out on motors and/or machines.

ABB's drives now feature icons, hints, tips and help screens to show users where to look to investigate process events, helping find causes more quickly.

At a system level, events are also now time stamped, either by the keypad clock, control card clock or system clock for the whole process line (via fieldbus), allowing causes to be properly understood.

Trip histories, for example, allow maintenance engineers to spot patterns of events. The trips and warnings are also time-stamped so the frequency of an event can be tracked, allowing preventive maintenance to be performed before a major issue occurs.

Brian Tinham

Related Companies
ABB Ltd

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