Condition Monitoring

Balluff offers the right solution for monitoring your machines and systems. From a simple standardized solution to the mapping of individual complex systems, our condition monitoring solutions set standards.
The goal is to increase reliability in the automation and digitalization of your production.

Monitor the conditions of machines and plants

Condition monitoring systems and their components contribute to the efficient and trouble-free operation of machines and plants in industry. Disruptions in the production process due to unplanned downtimes can be prevented by using sensors. Monitoring sensors, such as temperature, pressure and level sensors, provide data on the condition of a plant. When processed, this data provides information for the maintenance of machines and thus enables preventive maintenance. These condition monitoring systems allow changes, such as wear on individual components, to be detected more quickly and machine maintenance to be better coordinated.

Balluff Condition Monitoring: A comprehensive portfolio that sets standards

With a broad and systemically comprehensive product range, Balluff offers suitable solutions for the efficient analysis of your machine data: From the sensor, which provides additional data for efficient condition monitoring via IO-Link, to standard systems with extensive analysis options and evaluation software, to the customized overall solution. From evaluation to concept and implementation.
Choose the right path for you. We will travel it with you.

How does condition monitoring work?

Optimizing production or production processes in your company can be achieved by implementing sensors in your machines, plants and systems. The goal of condition monitoring is to successfully conduct predictive and preventive maintenance of your machines and systems. By using condition monitoring systems, your machines can receive ideal maintenance, which not only leads to process improvement, but also to more safety for your employees. Furthermore, breakdowns can be anticipated to avoid or minimize additional costs due to delays in production. Beyond these possibilities, an extensive information and data pool offers the possibility of new business and pricing models for machines and plants.

Technology and product components for condition monitoring systems

The IO-Link communication standard is an important basis for reliable condition monitoring systems. IO-Link sensors help to provide control-relevant information and additional service data. This service data provides information on service life, operating hours and functional reserve, for example. This means load situations such as increasing contamination or adjustment errors can be detected at an early stage. For example, the light emission values can be used to monitor the quality of the sensor signal. In the same way, the origin of the data can be reliably determined by the device's identity. The components are now able to report and provide information about themselves.

Condition detection, analysis, diagnosis:
With the components of the Smart Automation and Monitoring System (SAMS), the condition data you need is available uniformly, everywhere and as soon as you need it.

Here is a comprehensive range of suitable sensors to implement condition monitoring systems

• Pressure sensors, e.g. to monitor hydraulically controlled processes, where measuring the occurring pressure reflects the condition within the control loop.

• Flow sensors, e.g. to detect decreasing pump performance or a decomposing filter. This can alert the need for cleaning or replacement when a certain value is reached.

• Temperature sensors, e.g. to continuously detect the temperature of a motor. If the measured temperature deviates from the prescribed operating temperature, countermeasures can be taken to prevent machine downtime.

• Human Machine Interfaces to visualize the condition states

• Capacitive sensors, e.g. to detect leakage at lines, enabling targeted maintenance.

• Power supplies, intelligent Heartbeat® power supply units from Balluff with IO-Link interface calculate their service life based on load and runtime, which is forwarded to the evaluation unit. Based on this service life, a power supply unit can be replaced at the right time. Voltage and current can also be read out via IO-Link and can reveal the status of connected actuators.

BCM - A condition monitoring solution in an intelligent sensor

In addition to the standard IO-Link sensors, Balluff offers an intelligent BCM condition monitoring sensor. The condition monitoring sensor measures various physical variables - such as vibration, temperature, humidity and ambient pressure - and supplies the recorded data to a higher-level system via IO-Link. The data obtained can be used not only for plant control, but can also be further evaluated and analyzed for diagnostic purposes. In addition, the sensor offers the possibility of defining limit values for pre-alarms and main alarms, so that certain states generate warning messages as soon as the defined values are exceeded. After evaluating the data obtained, statements can be made about the condition of the machines and systems. Together with the warning messages, this data pool is a prerequisite for predictive maintenance.

Condition Monitoring Toolkit (CMTK)

With the Condition Monitoring Toolkit, we offer you a holistic solution to monitor the condition of machines and processes. It contains everything you need: from sensors to data acquisition to visualization. At the same time, you benefit from great flexibility thanks to compatibility with all IO-Link sensors, but also simple operation thanks to the intuitive software. Thus, with the CMTK, you can implement condition monitoring entirely according to your needs in just a few minutes.

IIoT as an important factor for condition monitoring systems

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is essential for smart and flexible manufacturing. IIoT solutions aim to automate industrial processes and make aspects such as machine monitoring in industry more efficient. But without experience, how should one implement such solutions? Where should one start? In the IT world or on the shop floor, in the OT world?

Do these challenges sound familiar?

Then Balluff is the right partner for you. We offer you customized digitization and IIoT solutions, consisting of sensor technology, software and industrial know-how based on our many years of experience in industrial automation. We are the right partner from the very beginning, starting with evaluation, conceptualization and implementation.

Objectives of condition monitoring

• Comprehensive collection of relevant data as the foundation of innovative developments and as the basis for optimizing machines, processes, products and productivity

• Measures can be scheduled and planned, thus enabling optimal preventive maintenance and the development and implementation of a data-based maintenance strategy

• Downtime management: taking action before failures occur reduces costs of maintenance and avoids the emergence of additional costs

• Ideal maintenance ensures greater employee safety

In addition, the extensive use of condition monitoring systems offers future-oriented new opportunities and potentials for machine manufacturers, such as innovative pricing and business models through usage-based remuneration based on the data pool, data-based optimization of the product life cycle, and even monetization of the data pool.