Plug-and-play standalone system
29/04/2022
The Balluff Condition Monitoring Toolkit (CMTK), a standalone system that contains everything needed to monitor the condition of processes and machines, including data acquisition and visualisation, now has UL (safety certification) approval for use in the USA and Canada. It provides an easy-to-implement solution for adding condition monitoring to existing machines and processes.
With the flexible CMTK, the company claims that manufacturers can quickly gain deeper insights into the actual condition of their machines and systems, allowing for early detection of issues. Each system includes the hardware and software and supports up to four IO-Link sensors.
As well as the UL approval, upgrades to the CMTK include support for Spanish and Portuguese languages, in addition to the existing English and German language support. Version 1.2 also supports running software and programming languages such as Node-RED, Python and C++. There is also a REST API for configuration and a web user interface for IO-Link configuration.
The CMTK runs independently, providing actionable data no matter what control systems are in place. The base unit is a miniaturised computer, which can be installed on a DIN rail in a control cabinet for easy deployment. Four IO-Link ports allow for the addition of sensors to measure factors such as temperature, vibration, humidity and pressure. Built-in software stores this data, visualises it on a dashboard and can send alerts and export data. Built-in LAN ports connect the CMTK either directly to a computer or to an existing computer network. Depending on the sensors selected, the toolkit can be used for a variety monitoring tasks.
This flexible system provides a smart and low-cost way to retrofit plants with comprehensive machine monitoring. The condition data gained through the CMTK provides continuous status information on connected machines, enabling predictive maintenance to be performed. This greatly reduces unplanned downtime and the unnecessary costs associated with it. This is all achieved completely independent of a cloud connection or machine control system.
