SICK unveils condition monitoring cloud service

Effective and timely condition monitoring is essential to the success of any factory or logistics centre. But how do you accurately monitor machinery to know when maintenance is required before a fault occurs?

To solve this challenge, SICK has launched a new product called Monitoring Box that enables access to sensor data for cloud-based condition monitoring.

The new Smart Service web application is designed to visualise status data from SICK sensors, offering users added value from previously unused sensor data. The Monitoring Box allows for the visualisation of internal device parameters to diagnose and monitor fault conditions.

It consists of a browser application, server-side data management, an IoT gateway and suitable predefined sensor apps for simple connection of SICK sensors.

The Monitoring Box includes SICK’s Smart Service Gateway to allow for short time storage, pre-processing of data and secure data transmission. A cloud service is provided for data security and long-term data backup.

Lastly, the Monitoring App provides application-specific support for sensors and machinery. These are described as plug-and-play apps that are available as a subscription.

The comprehensive dashboard provided by Monitoring Box provides an overview of the status, name and location, which includes job recommendations. Live status data provides all relevant data in real time. This includes device information and status, operating mode and other data points that help to detect errors and malfunctions.

In addition, historical data is available to understand past issues and better predict the future. And lastly, issue and alert logs are also available and can be saved within a dedicated log to provide an overview of past alerts and determine any irregularities within the device or process that can be detected and analysed. The type of alerts can be customised based on the needs of the user.

The Monitoring Box is available for several SICK sensors, including safety and non-safety LiDAR, vision technology, barcode readers and RFID.

Image: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Andreas Prott