Advanced condition monitoring from t-mac
A significant amount of a quarry manager’s time and maintenance budget can be lost due to poorly performing equipment and plant breakdowns. In response, t-mac Technologies Ltd have created t-mac, a versatile system offering remote Internet monitoring and control of plant and equipment to help deliver cost savings and reduce downtime.
Through constant monitoring t-mac can report and record machine vibration, temperature, ignition on/off etc, freeing valuable man hours and offering ‘damage limitation’ by identifying and diverting potential hazards at an early stage. A key benefit is that there is no need to undertake site visits to monitor critical conditions first-hand or to hire employees to monitor systems from a centralized location on a 24h basis.
The t-mac device can be mounted directly on plant, equipment or vehicles, concealed within an IP65 housing. For example, t-mac can be programmed to monitor the engine temperature on crushing equipment, sending alerts to the site manager via SMS and/or email should the temperature fall outside the predetermined criteria. The system can also be used to monitor machine run time, allowing plant-hire companies to rent machines by the hour, according to usage, or simply to act as an added security feature, raising alerts if the machine is activated out of hours, thereby assisting in reducing site theft.
Information collected by t-mac is stored in a central database and accessed through a secure web page. The system continually collects data and provides up-to-date trending of speed, temperature and vibration; it can also produce information for reviewing a machine’s run history. Using easy-to-read graphs and tables, quarry managers and plant hirers can view valuable management information on equipment or vehicle conditions, associated wastages, energy and asset inefficiencies, and costs via any Internet connection.
The system has the added benefit of allowing customers to view historical data on their traditional monitoring systems, without the need to replace existing instrumentation. The flexibility of t-mac means it can interface with a range of sensors covering a wide range of applications.
Commenting on the system’s versatility, t-mac Technologies managing director, Alan Wilkinson, said: ‘Remote machine monitoring brings numerous advantages to the quarry and construction industries, offering 24/7 machine condition monitoring for security, safety, damage limitation and remote site management, as well as remote-control facilities for remote shutdown. With additional GPS modules t-mac also allows managers to determine the physical location of machinery. Moreover, by employing t-mac to monitor a machine’s life cycle, its second-hand resale value will increase as there will be significant evidence to back up its run history.
‘Ultimately, through early warning alerts, t-mac can help save quarry and construction managers thousands of pounds in damaged machines and excessive energy consumption, and help avoid costly site downtime.’
t-mac Technologies Ltd, Stand Park, Sheffield Road, Chesterfield, Derbys S41 8JT; tel: (01246) 233632; fax: (01246) 201193.
