Data, data and more data – that’s what Anna-Maria Reimer and Franz Weiß deal with every day. oth of them work at Herding, a complete supplier of filter systems for the industrial sector. As data volumes increase, the challenge lies in keeping an eye on the data for customers and allowing access at all times. With WAGO Analytics, they have found a solution for acquisition, evaluation and monitoring of their filter systems’ data – from anywhere. How exactly does it work? Read our customer application report to find out.
Data, Data and More Data
Let’s start at the beginning: Filter systems in the industrial sector? What exactly does that mean? Franz Weiß, Head of Electrical Engineering, who has worked at Herding for nine years, explains: “You can find us anywhere dust accumulates: from additive manufacturing, to the chemical industry, pharmaceuticals and quarries, to surface engineering – across all industries. We have our own filter element, the Herding sinter-plate filter.” Herding installs this filter in a complete system tailored to the customer’s requirements. But what happens to all the data generated during analysis of the filter systems? The demands on data acquisition and analysis are increasing, especially against the backdrop of digitization. And this is where WAGO comes in.
Automated Dashboards
Today’s data is tomorrow’s gold. It needs to be accessible at all times – and visually appealing storage, processing and analysis capabilities are essential. “WAGO offered us a great monitoring solution, which lets us create automated dashboards for our filter systems, so we no longer have any electrical planning work to do,” explains Weiß. Everything runs automatically for Herding – which saves them a great deal of time and work. Another advantage: The entire system is cloud-based, so it can be accessed at any time, from anywhere. If the customer wants, they can also get access to the monitoring tool. Anna-Maria Reimer, Technical Assistant at Herding, explains the specific data involved: “It mostly concerns differential pressure. In the filter, there’s a raw gas side and a clean gas side – raw gas where the dust goes in, and clean gas where the clean air is. We measure this pressure differential so we know when the filter is clogged and needs to be cleaned.” WAGO Analytics is very helpful for monitoring performance, especially in new systems.
Openness and Future-Proof Design
This approach optimizes monitoring for new systems; it also reduces travel, since problems can often be solved right on the dashboard. In addition, maintenance can be planned in advance with the help of the WAGO solution, improving the overall customer service. Another advantage: Herding can track trends over the past 20 years, since this data has been integrated into the system as well. “In essence, we integrated a huge trove of valuable data into the system. Customers are delighted to see how we process the data. It makes quite an impression,” says Weiß.
From projects that have already been successfully implemented, Mirko Faber, Application Developer at WAGO, knows how digitization creates ever more demanding requirements, and he is excited to be working in partnership with Herding. “From the very beginning, we were convinced of the enormous potential of this solution. We designed the software as a modular solution to make it future-proof and open for expansion to forthcoming applications.”
Digitization Creates Huge Opportunities
Openness and future-proof design are two key concepts for Anna-Maria Reimer. The issue of digitization is crucial – not only for Herding, but also on the customer side. “Digitization is very important for us, because we see great opportunities to position ourselves better with customers and tailor our solutions even more precisely to them.” In future, solutions will need to be even more closely adapted to customers’ processes; that requires data, which then needs to be analyzed and displayed correctly. And this is exactly where WAGO was able to provide support: “A fast, high-performance monitoring solution in real time,” adds Weiß.
More Than Just a Modular System
Together, Herding and WAGO were able to develop an optimal monitoring system in WAGO Analytics, tailored to the customer’s specific needs. Weiß emphasizes that a purely modular system would not have worked for him, since a custom solution was crucial for the company – and WAGO provided the perfect implementation.
Looking ahead, Herding has already commissioned another follow-up project; with the open system, WAGO Analytics can be expanded at any time.
Text taken over from original – WAGO
