Make sense of data to boost profit: Tom Shelley reports on how sensors are improving engineers' ability to gather plant operating data - and explains how to use this information to increase profitability

摘要

Significant advances are constantly being made in gathering information about what is really going on in process and industrial plant - especially where located in more remote locations - and in processing this information to reduce downtime and improve profitability. Much of the leading-edge development in sensing is to be found in small companies, often spun out of university research teams. Dr Jack Hale, based in the School of Mechanical and Systems Engineering at the University of Newcastle, and his former associate, Dr Robin Stephenson, have set up a company, Hale-Stephenson, to commercialise their expertise in monitoring remote plant, Specifically, the purpose is to pinpoint those rare events that operators need to be advised of urgently, so they are not deluged with information they do not need to look at. At a recent conference, 'Sensors and their applications XIII', organised by the Institute of Physics and held at Greenwich University in Chatham, Dr Hale revealed the type of events he has in mind: ships colliding with wind turbines, land slips affecting pipelines, significant oil leaks and acts of terrorism.