In future, Dürr will support customers in maintaining their painting and sealing robots with a digital maintenance assistant. With the help of a traffic-light system, the software shows the current maintenance needs and simultaneously indicates work that will shortly be pending. In doing so, the intelligent system orients itself on the actual condition of the plant. This ensures high availability over the long term. In its digital@Dürr concept, Dürr thereby delivers an important Smart Factory module.
An illuminated green wrench on the screen shows: Everything is fine. If it is yellow, maintenance should be planned in the near future, and if it is red, maintenance work is required immediately. With this intuitive system, the new EcoScreen Maintenance Assistant from Dürr provides targeted information about upcoming measures to the maintenance personnel.
In the newly developed software, Dürr has integrated an entire series of functions that support trouble-free operation of the robots. In the past, the type and time of maintenance tasks were documented in an instruction manual. “Maintenance is now oriented to the actual use of the individual plant components and is not performed according to purely time-based maintenance intervals,” says Dr. Hans Schumacher, President & CEO of the Dürr Division Application Technology, explaining the new method of the digital maintenance assistant.
This produces multiple advantages. Firstly, the existing maintenance plans are clearly arranged in digital form, and the maintenance history is also documented online and made available at the push of a button. “The actual condition of a painting booth is determined using everything from component operating times, counters and test functions to intelligent wear models. This preventive maintenance planning is essential for further service measures, which in turn increase the plant uptime availability over the long term,” says Dr. Schumacher.
Intuitive user guidance
The new EcoScreen Maintenance Assistant software determines the plant condition – for example, from the number of valve switching cycles or from the servo motor load profiles. The due date of pending maintenance tasks is clearly shown on the monitor by means of the traffic-light function. Further detailed information is stored for the individual maintenance tasks. The location of the component requiring maintenance in the plant and the service steps to be performed sequentially are shown in graphic form. Furthermore, additional assistance like films or experiences from the maintenance history can be supplemented in the system. The new software has been in use since the beginning of 2016.
Maintenance planning using the actual condition
The intelligent test functions, from which the plant equipment’s condition can be determined, go one step further. “For example, the operating personnel can carry out valve, brake or pump tests. Parameters are determined from the resulting recorded data to inform the operator about currently required or soon to be expected maintenance measures,” explains Dr. Schumacher.
These tests can be individually started by the operating personnel or automatically – for example, after a pause in production. The application area is varied. For example, during the valve test, the valve switching function in the atomizer can be determined through analysis of the pressure characteristics. The traffic-light function then shows on the monitor whether a valve is to be replaced immediately or whether everything is functioning reliably.
Expanded status detection using intelligent wear models
Independent system data analyses are another innovation. Using intelligent model calculations, it will be possible to perform long-term observations and make comparisons across robots and stations. For example, a specific signal characteristic of the speed controller for the turbine in the high-rotation atomizer can indicate the relationship between pressure and rotation speed on the atomizer. Hence, the system can conclude whether the compressed air supply is working correctly. Using these data analyses, the pure runtime monitoring of a plant is replaced with individual wear models of the plant components and is thereby transformed into real status detection. The corresponding maintenance intervals can be continuously optimized this way.
The system can be used online, which means the system operator can access the painting and sealing robots at any time using the mobile tablet PC EcoPad. Remote access by Dürr service personnel can also be ensured if necessary.
