Webinar Description:

Industry 4.0 delivers new ways of boosting safety and maintenance regimes, and the related industrial infrastructures make it easy to integrate vibration trending into process monitoring and factory automation. The challenge comes in simplifying analog vibration data for digital protocols without sacrificing full spectrum vibration data that is valuable for machinery fault analysis. How can we bridge the gap?

Wilcoxon’s previous webinar in this series explored process monitoring solutions based on 4-20 mA outputs for data collection and trending. Bridging the Gap 2.0 focuses on industrial automation connectivity, including MODBUS, OPC-UA, and MQTT. These industrial automation protocols can be used to transmit large volumes of vibration measurements for data analysis and decision making.

Data collected by PLCs, DCSs, and SCADA systems for monitoring at the operations level can also be shared with data historians and condition monitoring systems at the enterprise level. These large volumes of vibration data can also be transferred to cloud databases useful for AI, machine learning, digital twins, model training, and vibration analysis SaaS.

Learning Takeaways:

1. Expand the value of collected vibration data beyond traditional asset reliability based on analog accelerometer waveforms. Bring actionable data directly into the control room to optimize plant performance and reliability with a combined control and maintenance system.
2. Integrate vibration data into existing enterprise infrastructure and cloud platforms using established communication protocols.
3. Understand the different protocols that can now be utilized to access a larger number of useful vibration data measurements and how they can fit into different IT/OT infrastructures.

About the Presenters:

• As the Director of Product Management at Wilcoxon Sensing Technologies, Tom LaRocque is a technical leader and the driving force behind innovative vibration monitoring solutions that are shaping the future. For over 25 years, Tom has focused on design and development of industrial vibration sensing products, while developing product lines and manufacturing processes that deliver strong advantages, save time and optimize resources. His priority is continuing Wilcoxon’s six-decades-long legacy of bringing high quality, reliable vibration monitoring solutions and accessories to market that improve manufacturing processes and maximize efficient plant operations. Tom holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Clarkson University and achieved CAT-III Vibration Analyst certification. He served as a Military Intelligence Officer in the US Army.
• Peter Eitnier is a Senior Applications Engineer and Technical Product Manager at Wilcoxon Sensing Technologies in Frederick, Maryland. He holds an ISO CAT II certification as a vibration analyst and a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland. After joining Wilcoxon in 2012 as a Design Engineer, he has transitioned to the Senior Applications Engineer and specializes in providing technical expertise to customers in a variety of applications.