Company Name: Balluff Automation (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.

Project Name: BALLUFF CMTK System

Award Category: Innovation Sustainable Product

Product / Service Introduction

BALLUFF CMTK (CONDITION MONITORING TOOLKIT) system , consisting of three components: software, base unit and up to four arbitrary IO-Link sensors, is an innovative solution for condition monitoring. While many existing plants do not have the technical prerequisites for condition monitoring, even though this can prevent unplanned downtime, unnecessary costs and save unexpected energy consumption, CMTK is an easy-to-implement solution with an excellent cost-benefit ratio.

Combing hardware and software, the system supports Plug-and-play commissioning of the system and visualization of the data, and sending warning messages when adjustable limit value are exceeded. On hardware wise, the base unit is the central element which features 4 × M8 IO-Link ports for sensors, 2 × LAN ports for data transmission, IP20 protection and expandable memory. And the system is compatible with all IO-Link 1.1-capable sensors on the market: vibration and temperature sensors for motors, pressure and flow sensors for pumps and compressors, temperature and/or humidity for control cabinets, etc. On software wise: the user-friendly interface is integrated in the base unit, featuring easy access to dashboard via web browser, IO-Link sensors configuration, Rest API for further configurations IIoT-capable through standardized interfaces such as MQTT. 

Thanks to the support of common protocols and interfaces such as IO-Link and MQTT, the system can be easily adapted to different applications. The CMTK from Balluff makes an essential contribution to the efficient and faultless operation of any equipment and significantly increases the efficiency of the overall system. Helping customers reduce their carbon footprint by saving on additional energy consumption due to equipment downtime or replacement.

Explanation of Circular Economy Practice

The CMTK is designed to be an efficient and flexible solution to help customers conduct condition monitoring with the goal of reducing downtime and unnecessary costs through predictive maintenance. All IO-Link 1.1 sensors are supported by the system, enabling CMTK to adapt to flexible field monitoring needs, and the built-in system software facilitates the visualization of monitoring data and the implementation of predictive maintenance to ensure that the field equipment always operates under optimal conditions and improves operational efficiency.

Example 1: A medical device manufacturer produces surgical sutures, the company’s key production equipment needs to be in a constant temperature & air-conditioned room supported by a 37Kw motor. It has an extreme stability need for the operation, but the maintenance can only be carried out through experience, a huge expense of human and material resources. The use of the CMTK for this important production equipment for real-time monitoring, with the help of condition monitoring sensors to monitor the status of the equipment and to present the status information to the dashboard. At the same time, the kit base unit comes with expandable storage, the team download the data for excel file for further analysis to analyze the state of the equipment on a regular basis and conduct possible predictive maintenance. The use of the kit has resulted in a ten times increase in the frequency of inspections, while saving 50% of unnecessary downtime, 30% of power costs, 40% of lost production costs, and 70% of the equipment's maintenance costs. It is also an important step forward in the company's digitalization process.

Example 2: An automation company uses CMTK system to monitor the operating status of the core motor of the production line, and needs to monitor the operating temperature and vibration amplitude of the motor simultaneously, and in-real-time output to the data dashboard of the production line management personnel to monitor the operating status of the equipment and achieve predictive maintenance, the use of this kit has reduced the automatic production line by about 60% unnecessary downtime, 35% of power costs , 45% of production loss cost and 50% of maintenance cost, saving about 1 million equipment replacement costs per year, effectively improving the operation efficiency and delivery capacity of the production line, and promoting customer satisfaction and industry influence.

Overview of Product/Service Lifecycle

Product Design: 

The past big data provides reference for the selection of key components.

Production:

During the equipment assembly phase, simple installation and setup greatly accelerate the debugging and import of the equipment.

Useage:

Combining various sensors and providing real-time key data monitoring, effectively ensuring the stability and uninterrupted operation of the production line.

Recycling and Recovery:

Early intervention in the timing of key component failures, effective control of losses, ensuring production while significantly reducing maintenance costs.

More Product / Service Highlights