PneuViz: Compressed Air Monitoring Application

Compressed air is the fourth largest utility in the manufacturing industry behind electricity, natural gas and water. It is used in a wide variety of pneumatic, mechanical and maintenance applications in every manufacturing facility. However, very little efforts have been made in trying to monitor and optimize the utilization of compressed air. Hence, a study was conducted to analyze the utilization of compressed air under various scenarios that are typical during metal cutting operation in a manufacturing facility. PneuViz application was developed to analyze the results. PneuViz provides drill down capability to analyze cost of compressed air on a per part, per machine, and per customer order. Monitoring the utilization of compressed air by a stand-alone Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine as well as the overall utilization on the shop floor was facilitated by the use of a sensor system comprising of a flow meter, data acquisition system and a power sensor. MTConnect was used to enable plug-and-play functionality across the various machines on the shop floor. MTConnect was implemented by developing a system of sensor adapters, agents and data parser. Finally, analysis was performed over different machining scenarios to determine the cost, energy consumption and carbon footprint of the compressed air usage on the shop floor.

Reference: PneuViz: MTConnect enabled Compressed Air Monitoring Application; Atluru S., Deshpande A., Huang S., Pieper R.; Proceedings of the ASME 2012 International Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference, MSEC2012, June 4-8, 2012, Notre Dame, Indiana, USA.

Raspberry Pi for $25

A new ARM GNU/Linux box called the Raspberry Pi will soon be available for $25. More information available at http://www.raspberrypi.org.

http://www.raspberrypi.org

Thanks to Jon Fournier for sending Rasberry Pi information.

Getting Started with MTConnect: Connectivity Guide

The MTConnect connectivity guide is now available for download at the mtconnect.org website. Click here to download (direct link) the connectivity guide. 

The article is an excellent resource for anyone who is interested in getting the first-hand knowledge of the MTConnect standard and its potential benefits to manufacturing. Though most of the sections in the document explain the technical aspects, Section 3 and Section 4 focus on benefits and steps to get started with MTConnect implementation.

Content Overview:

Section 1 - Introduction

Section 2 - MTConnect Overview

Section 3 -  What Problems Do Companies Solve With MTConnect?

• Production Dashboard or Monitor
• Alerts
• Equipment Availability and Usage
• Machine Downtime Analysis
• Overall Equipment Effectiveness:
• Production Reporting/Tracking
• Maintenance Tracking/Planning

Section 4 – How to Begin

• Step 1 – Define the Problem That You Are Trying to Solve
• Step 2 – What Does Success Look Like?
• Step 3 – Define Your Equipment
• Step 4 – Define Limitations/Restraints That Impact Your Project
• Step 5 – List the People in Your Organization Who Will Impact the Project

Section 5 - I Know What I Need – How Do I Get It Done?

Section 6 -  Information (Data) Available using MTConnect

Section 7- Connecting a MTConnect Device to a Network

Section 8 - Conclusions

Appendix A – MTConnect Glossary of Terms

Appendix B – MTConnect Project Work Sheet

Appendix C – MTConnect Data Model and Data Types 

Click here to download (direct link) the connectivity guide. 

Sustainable Aerospace Manufacturing

Recently, I gave a talk on Sustainable Aerospace Manufacturing at the 2011 MC2 conference. The presentation video is now available. 

[MC]2 2011 - Day 2 - Sustainable Aerospace Manufacturing

The PDF copy of the presentation is available here.

More information on the session and MC2 conference available here. 

Sustainable Manufacturing: Applications to Monitor your Equipment

Recently, the MTConnect Institute completed a survey of currently available applications which utilize the MTConnect standard to enable sustainable manufacturing. The survey was conducted as part of the "Sustainable Aerospace Manufacturing Initiative (SAMI)" for the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) and Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology, Inc. (CCAT).

The SAMI report is now available for download at the MTConnect Institute website. Click here to access the report in PDF format  (261 pages, 4 MB).