Drum

False alarms during a drum change can be prevented if the system recognises that someone is working on the drum. At ifm, optical distance sensors detect when the doors in front of the casting resin drums are opened. During this time, a falling or jumping level does not trigger an order. This avoids wrong orders caused by an unintentionally reached threshold, whether during a change or during maintenance.

Reordering is automated by letting level thresholds trigger an order directly. In the ifm example, moneo sends an order to SAP via its own interface when the warning threshold is reached. Later, the moneo LifetimeEstimator takes over: it calculates the remaining time from actual consumption and orders a new drum from the central warehouse 24 hours before the change is due.

Yes, existing sensors can be connected without any change to the controller. ifm uses an IO-Link data splitter for this: it passes the 4–20 mA signal unchanged to the plant controller and makes the previously unused IO-Link signal available to an IO-Link master. The adapter galvanically isolates both sides, so the original controller is not affected. The data travels over the network to moneo.

In hazardous material storage, IoT monitors values such as temperature and leaks automatically and replaces manual inspection rounds. In podcast episode #113, DENIOS and ROBIOTIC present a leakage warning system developed together with Hoffmann + Krippner and TK-World. Sensors send their data via cellular network to a customer cloud; in the portal, customers define rules and create reports at the push of a button, for example for audits.