What The Tech: How to main­tain fans according to demand?

Predic­tive main­te­nance is a method to to predict equip­ment fail­ures based on certain para­me­ters and factors. Once predicted, manu­fac­turers take needed steps to prevent this failure with correc­tive or sched­uled main­te­nance. Learn more about pred­i­tive main­te­nance in this video.

Machines, such as fans, are moni­tored. Condi­tion moni­toring then involves sensors checking the condi­tion of the machine and its indi­vidual parts. The more sensors the system has, the more data can be collected for condi­tion moni­toring. After all, a high level of reli­a­bility and oper­a­tional reli­a­bility are impor­tant for venti­lation and air condi­tioning.

Predic­tive main­te­nance is required to guar­antee a long fan service life, to plan service work as required and to opti­mize the system during oper­a­tion. This is based on a predic­tive main­te­nance strategy with the aim of predicting upcoming faults or the remaining service life of a tech­nical system. As a result, entire systems can be serviced based on their require­ments. This makes it possible to compare oper­ating data remotely with target values in order to iden­tify poten­tial improve­ments, reduce oper­ating costs and mini­mize noise. How does that work?

Sensors measure pres­sure, speed, vibra­tion and temper­a­ture, among other things. This data is collected in a data­base or cloud and eval­u­ated in real time using soft­ware. The algo­rithms devel­oped provide infor­ma­tion on trend analyses, and more. On reaching a crit­ical condi­tion, appro­priate main­te­nance measures can be initi­ated or appro­priate repair measures can be taken.

A lot can be predicted by using tech­nology. Data is not just about numbers on a piece of paper. It dictates predic­tions to us – without using magic.