Contributor: Everactive

Everactive, the company pioneering wireless, batteryless Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) systems, today launched its Machine Health Monitoring (MHM) solution, designed to deliver real-time, maintenance-free insights into the health of rotating equipment, such as motors, pumps, fans, and compressors.

Everactive’s wireless sensor network operates without batteries, instead using the company’s proprietary Eversensors, which are powered exclusively from low levels of “harvested energy”—in this case, a warm machine surface or dim indoor light. Without requiring any upfront capital expenditure or ongoing battery maintenance, Everactive provides a data-rich continuous monitoring service at a cost-effective annual rate.

By transmitting vibration, temperature, and magnetic field data to the cloud continuously, Everactive’s MHM solution detects machine faults earlier than competing offerings. Utilizing batteryless sensors that themselves never require any maintenance, MHM allows plant personnel to deploy already limited maintenance resources only when and where they are required. Such a cost-effective approach lets operators monitor all machines, regardless of size, helping to optimize overall plant efficiency.

“Our Machine Health Monitoring solution alerts plant operators to critical machine issues in real-time and across all machines, resulting in increased uptime, improved equipment efficiency, and reduced energy usage,” said Bob Nunn, CEO of Everactive. “Without the maintenance and waste that comes with batteries, plants can implement predictive maintenance at scale, delivering the type of pervasive remote monitoring that has become all the more vital in the wake of COVID-19.”

With hundreds of millions of rotating machines consuming 53% of the world’s electricity at the heart of the industrial sector, machine failure can have significant consequences; mitigating the impact of these events represents a windfall to industrial firms’ bottom line.

The most consequential machine failures result in unplanned downtime, costing manufacturers a staggering $260,000 per hour in lost productivity, according to Aberdeen. At the same time, aging and poorly maintained equipment not only increases electricity bills, but also routine maintenance costs; repair costs are typically much higher the longer it takes to identify and address machine faults.

This ability to pinpoint and address machine failure events as they occur can reduce industrial operating costs by billions of dollars per year and dramatically improve a plant’s sustainability record. Doing so with zero-maintenance, self-powered sensors enables widespread coverage without any added battery management costs—maximizing the returns from firms’ Industrial Internet of Things investments.

Everactive’s MHM is an end-to-end system designed to reduce both upfront and ongoing costs. That system includes batteryless Eversensors that transmit machine health data every minute via an IoT gateway to the company’s cloud-based analytics platform, Evercloud, which then provides detailed analysis and trend data across a wide variety of parameters. Evercloud sends real-time alarms via email and/or SMS as issues are identified, based upon the specific profile of monitored machine and/or user-configurable thresholds.

Traditionally, plant operators have relied on intermittent manual equipment inspections, an inefficient process that leaves the plant vulnerable to any issues that may arise during the time between inspections. MHM provides reliability professionals and vibration analysts real-time visibility to avoid any surprises and unanticipated events.

Everactive has caught the attention of some of the largest industrial players as those firms push into the Industrial Internet of Things and expand their digitization strategies. One such company is ABB, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of industrial motors and related equipment.

“Everactive’s batteryless energy harvesting sensor, coupled with their proprietary low-power, long range, high bandwidth communication, and their advanced analytics are highly complementary to ABB’s vision of the future of Industrial IoT,” says Franziska Bossart, Group Vice President at ABB Technology Ventures.

“Using that technology platform to remotely monitor rotating equipment is extremely compelling and widely applicable. It offers customers a granular, up-to-the-minute look at their equipment—without the added layer of battery management—that could very well feed the deeper motor analytics developed by ABB over several decades.”

Everactive’s devices are rated for 20 years, without the need for any maintenance. The non-invasive installation process—using either a magnetic, bolt-on, or epoxy attachment—minimizes the need for specialized tools and can be completed in under 10 minutes per device. The robust range of Everactive’s wireless network—from approximately 500 feet in heavy-interference industrial settings to over a half-mile line-of-sight—combined with Everactive’s highly scalable network means a light infrastructural footprint of gateways throughout a customer’s facility.

The company’s Eversensors are Class I, Division 2 certified to operate in hazardous locations where explosion or fire hazards exist due to the presence of flammable liquids, gases, or vapors. The Eversensors are also IP66-rated for protection against dust and water ingress and feature reliable and wide temperature ranges for outdoor and indoor applications, down to -40⁰ F and up to 392° F.

Availability

The MHM solution is available for field trials now, with plant-wide production availability at the end of June. The solution is sold to customers with no upfront capital cost as part of an annual service agreement. For more information on purchasing this solution, contact sales@everactive.com.

For more information on Everactive’s other batteryless systems designed to deliver real-time insight through the collection, communication, and analysis of sensed data, visit https://everactive.com/solutions.

About Everactive

Everactive produces data intelligence for the physical world. Operating without batteries, the company’s always-on wireless sensor networks deliver continuous cloud-based analytics at a scale not possible with battery-powered devices. Everactive’s end-to-end solutions are built upon groundbreaking advances in ultra-low-power circuit design and wireless communication that allow the company to power its Eversensors exclusively from harvested energy. The company has also developed the required networking and cloud software to deliver an out-of-the-box service focused on providing customers with valuable insights from its newly generated and self-sustaining data streams. Everactive has offices in Santa Clara, CA; Charlottesville, VA; and Ann Arbor, MI. For additional information, visit www.everactive.com.