ProMat is the leading manufacturing, distribution, and supply chain exposition where industry-leading innovators showcase the best solutions and innovations that the industry has to offer and where you will meet the leading suppliers in person. If you're attending ProMat, stop by our booth (#N8519) to learn how we can help you. If you're NOT attending ProMat, this blog will explain how GraceSense is improving material handling maintenance needs with condition monitoring solutions!

Material handling consists of the movement, storage, protection, and control of materials and products within manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution environments. Traditionally, material handling maintenance programs have been analog, but now Grace has new IIoT technology that's making it safer, smarter, and more productive.

According to the 2018 MHI Annual Report, more places are investing in automation and robots for material handling. In fact, within the next five years, adoption rates are predicted to jump from 34% to 73%. That means things like automated mobile robots and conveyor systems will be doing a lot more of the sorting, picking, packing, and palletizing. But, of course, new technology means new maintenance strategies. So, it's important to optimize these strategies to keep your team productive and safe.

Revenue loss is not the only impact being made; 70% of workplace injuries occur during reactive maintenance. Due to these economic factors, a culture of expediting maintenance to get a plant back up and running as soon as possible often results in injuries due to unpreparedness. Maintenance teams move quickly to get their equipment back up and running, which can often result in human errors such as ignoring their training, and safety codes. These risks can be mitigated with a culture that adopts predictive maintenance solutions that allow maintenance teams to be more prepared and more secure with their planning and execution of tasks.

The continuous flow of conveyors enables materials to be transported over relatively long distances. However, the stress put on these mechanical machines over such lengths of time can result in a breakdown when least expected. Troubleshooting can be a tedious and arduous task as pinpointing the exact location of failures is difficult.

Due to the continuous demand for uptime, the machinery is known to be subject to wear and tear on critical points like bearings and, in many cases, can be overly maintained due to breakdown fears. In the event of a breakdown, an organization faces a considerable loss of production due to unplanned downtime. Delays in getting the machinery back up and running often occur due to unpreparedness and
a lack of replacement parts. Furthermore, personnel safety is at much greater risk during events of reactive
maintenance.

Within the materials handling space, IIoT opportunities for automated conveyor systems have the potential
to house integrated intelligent devices, like the GraceSense™ Vibration & Temperature Nodes, to monitor critical failure points. These devices can not only share data insights about impending failures but can also support worker safety by preventing a reactive maintenance scenario. Instead, maintenance teams are well-equipped and better prepared to execute and prioritize their tasks.

The GraceSense™ Predictive Maintenance System is an IIoT asset condition monitoring system that utilizes
wireless sensor technology integrated alongside wired sensors. Advanced data analytics provide asset managers with deep insights into machine health to effectively prioritize resources and maximize the value
of their maintenance spend. 

Deployment of the GraceSense™ Predictive Maintenance System, an IIoT smart monitoring system, will improve conveyor maintenance management in the following ways:

• Vibration: Anomalous vibration occurs when a conveyor breakdown is impending. The application of a vibration monitoring device will provide early detection and additional time to prepare the necessary repairs when abnormal vibration harmonics are detected early on. A vibration monitoring device detects malfunctions by continuously monitoring the machinery and will send an alert to personnel to schedule maintenance and avoid an unexpected breakdown.
• Temperature: In the event of a bearing failure and/or misalignment on a conveyor system, a temperature monitoring device will capture a significant rise in temperature over time due to the increased load placed on the motors and drive system. When a sensor detects a temperature increase early on, dedicated personnel will receive an alert that the monitored point requires attention. The failure prediction and alert enable personnel to act fast to prevent unplanned downtime.

GraceSense™ technology improves overall plant reliability, safety, and maintenance metrics by remotely
monitoring asset health and sending timely notifications to plant floor personnel through SMS or email
alerts with pre-configured, step-by-step remediation instructions when anomalous behavior is detected.

Our GraceSense™ IIoT devices provide advanced analytics about machine health to prevent unplanned downtime. Wireless condition monitoring solution capable of providing real-time, sensor-based insights to almost any industrial application. Learn how you can get started today with our Starter Kits:

Registration is still open for our next FREE webinar: "How Your Lockout/Tagout Procedures Can Benefit from Electrical Safety by Design". Our Business Development Team, Chris Schneck & Nick Augustine, will host this webinar. Register today!

In this webinar, we will be exploring and demonstrating the benefits of incorporating safety by design principles into your Electrical Safety Programs. The NFPA 70E standard for electrical safety has existed for many decades, and yet to this day compliance is difficult to achieve for many organizations.

With our expert guidance, you will learn how to enhance your compliance efforts, improve safety, and reduce Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) procedure times. We will delve into the Process for Establishing and Verifying an Electrically Safe Work Condition using Permanent Electrical Safety Devices (PESDs), in compliance with NFPA 70E 120.5, and show you how to make compliance and maintenance safer, smarter, and more productive.