Acquire Better Asset Health Data With Continuous Monitoring Systems


Continuous Monitoring Systems use a powerful processor to screen asset health data on the plant floor. This 24x7 data screening is useful for acquiring machine startup data or for auxiliary assets that do not have a scheduled shift. Learn more about the technical screening capabilities of Continuous Monitoring Systems.


Onboard Storage

If the network is temporarily unavailable, the Continuous Monitoring System (Figure 1) stores the waveform dataset locally until network access is restored. Typical plant and factory installations have one InsightCMTM server per plant with 20 to 250 Continuous Monitoring Systems.

Figure 1. Continuous Monitoring Systems, such as the 8-slot option shown above, are built on CompactRIO systems that combine industrial PC capability with sensor measurement modules.

Intelligent Data Triggering

Screen data to reduce the overall data volume and provide a way to isolate important asset events. The following triggers to capture data:

  • Time—Data is captured in user-configurable time intervals such as once an hour, once a day, three times a day, and so on. Choose when to capture the features calculated (less data), the full waveform (more data), or both.
  • Change in engineering units (delta EU)—Data is captured when a calculated feature changes by the set delta value with respect to the initial measured value. Once the trigger condition is met, the trigger resets from the latest value but retains the same delta limit. This feature is most often used for ramp ups and coast downs during which data recordings at periodic rotational speeds are desired, for example, recording a 4 s waveform every 50 rpm during ramp up.
  • Alarm limits—Data is captured when a measured feature crosses a preset limit. You must acknowledge alarms before retriggering.
  • Force trigger—You can request a real-time reading using the force trigger option in the action menu for any device. This feature is good for troubleshooting sensor connections, spot checking an asset, or investigating the current state before acknowledging an alarm.

Burst Mode

Preset a time to collect data at higher acquisition rates (up to 102.4 kS/s per channel) to analyze assets with slow rotational speed. Continuous Monitoring Systems then revert to the lower set acquisition rate for feature calculation, trigger, and alarm screening.

Operating States

Create an operating state to set different data and tag-collection properties for specific conditions. For example, you might want to collect data from equipment more frequently when the equipment is under a heavy load than when it is idle. If you define an operating state, the Continuous Monitoring System detects the heavy-load condition and implements a different set of data-collection properties in response. This feature is also used to capture motor-start data sets (Figure 2) that are valuable to condition monitoring professionals but can be difficult to acquire due to remote locations or short-notice starts.

Figure 2. Continuous screening focuses attention on events with valuable information, such as startups, coast downs, peak usage, and so on. The image above shows the startup vibration signature of two chilled-water pumps in a building HVAC system. Capturing critical events manually is full of logistical challenges. Automatically screening and capturing these events help teams improve efficiency.