Steam boiler

An industrial boiler monitoring system works by having a platform collect data from sensors and controllers, store it and display it in dashboards. At Casa Mendes Gonçalves, Prosys OPC UA Forge handles data collection and writes to an SQL database, while Grafana shows the values in real time. A chemicals manufacturer uses Cumulocity, which takes care of data ingestion, device management and security. This leaves room for its own solutions, such as monitoring recovery boilers.

Only measured consumption data can reliably show whether another industrial steam generator is needed. At Casa Mendes Gonçalves, it was unclear whether an additional steam boiler worth around €110,000 would be required for future production needs. Prosys OPC UA Forge and Grafana made steam use transparent, and the data proved that the existing infrastructure was sufficient. The same solution also uncovered compressed air leaks that became apparent at weekends.

The condition of a recovery boiler can be monitored with automatically updated operating data instead of an annual inspection. In the pulp and paper industry, these boilers are critical assets, and a failure can bring the entire mill to a standstill. A specialty chemicals manufacturer has developed a pilot project for this on Cumulocity. It automates data ingestion and updating and gives customers insights into maintenance needs.

Industrial boiler efficiency can only be assessed reliably when steam is measured continuously rather than derived from invoices. At first, Kohrener Landmolkerei only had invoice figures, old meters without network connections and measuring devices whose data nobody used. Today, autinityE3 from Schaeffler Digital Solutions records electricity, steam, water and compressed air. The project started small with autinityE3 Starter and is being expanded step by step, with controlling and quality assurance using their own views.