The ‘age of sensors’ nears

As Wi-Fi devices deliver more and more data from distribution centers into the corporate network, wireless sensors tackle a more difficult job: transmitting data from manufacturing equipment directly into manufacturing control systems.

“Wireless sensors are the last frontier,” says Don Frieden, CEO of SAT, a company that uses Cingular’s Mobitex wireless network and its own IntelaTrac software to do exactly that.

Frieden estimates that nearly half of companies’ so-called stranded assets — such as pumps, motors, and compressors — are not monitored. Instead, manufacturers send technicians for all-day walks around plants or out into the field with clipboards to collect data, which they bring back to home base and transcribe into an Excel spreadsheet. Finally, the technicians dump the spreadsheet into the manufacturing control system for analysis.

Wireless sensors do a much faster job of detecting precursors to equipment failure.

“By the time the red light comes on in the dashboard in your car, it is too late. You need to know when the water pump begins to leak,” Frieden says.

The SAT system also includes handheld devices, which synchronize via the Wi-Fi network with Sybase’s iAnywhere software to alert technicians to problems, and to provide them with a guide to proper procedures.

Wireless sensors also can reduce waste. In the food industry, for example, sensors ensure that the weight of a package’s contents is accurate. United Biscuits Foods in England was having trouble with “giveaways.” The company needed to be sure that a snack food weighed at least 200 grams as stated on its label; but a package would often weigh as much as 250 grams.

Wireless sensors on the production line now count the weight of each cookie every 5 seconds. As soon as the data is collected, machine-to-machine communications instruct the cookie cutter or the chocolate expeller to adjust the thickness of the cookie or the amount of chocolate laid down to get it right.

The final packages now weigh about 205 grams, which saves as much as 45 grams per package in runs that might be 1 million packets per day.

Dave Kaufman, director of Integrated Field Solutions for Honeywell International, a major manufacturer of sensors, says wireless sensors are selling well.

“Wireless is allowing projects to go forward, which, in the wired world, just weren’t cost effective,” Kaufman says.