Revolutionising Manufacturing with Smart Sensors

It is incredible how smart sensors have helped many industries create an efficient working environment. Recent studies show that the market for smart sensors has grown significantly, and the global market is expected to reach around $43 billion by 2025.

In the manufacturing landscape, smart sensors enhance monitoring capabilities and improve productivity. This article will explore how these advanced sensors can be used in manufacturing buildings to monitor conditions and boost productivity, focusing on key concepts such as smart sensors, manufacturing, productivity, monitoring, and industrial technology.

How Essential Are Smart Sensors?

Smart sensors collect data on the physical environment and transmit it to centralised cloud computing systems. The data is then processed and analysed for seamless connectivity within any automated manufacturing plant. In industrial production, sensors can detect many transitions, including positions, temperature, displacement, and pressure.

There are various key applications of smart sensors in the industry of manufacturing, including:

1. Improving operations with data-driven insights

By leveraging smart sensors, manufacturers can generate data by connecting various devices and systems, facilitating seamless communication between machines. This enables manufacturers to:

• Monitor the performance of equipment and systems.
• Consolidate all the data generated.
• Analyse and compare datasets to establish benchmarks.

2. Anticipate equipment failures and initiate maintenance protocols

To remain competitive, manufacturers need to reduce their operations and maintenance budgets. This can be achieved by analysing data collected with sensors to identify patterns that indicate the need for equipment servicing. After the analysis, smart sensors can notify users regarding potential issues before they escalate into critical failures.

3. Automate data logging for historical records and regulatory compliance

Manufacturers may be subject to environmental regulations imposed by entities and must generate reports to demonstrate compliance. These reports often encompass historical data, records, and logs. Collating this information manually will consume much time, as it may need to be extracted from fragmented systems, and there is a risk of inaccuracies. That's where smart sensors come in to automate data with better accuracy.

Types of Smart Sensors

There are three most common smart sensors used in manufacturing industries, including:

1. Temperature Sensors are essential in industries where certain temperatures must be met for proper manufacturing processes, such as pharmaceutical, medical, food, and raw materials. Some temperature sensors can also detect and analyse the humidity level of plants, which will prevent product defects and ensure quality.
2. Infrared Sensors can monitor gas composition in welding applications, where unwanted gases can cause accidents in the manufacturing process.
3. Equipment Health Sensors continuously monitor machinery to detect early signs of breakdowns, enabling timely maintenance to ensure there is no risk of unexpected breakdowns. As stated in the previous section, this smart sensor reduces overall cost by reducing downtime.
4. Production Line Sensors will track the performance and status of production lines in real-time, helping to identify bottlenecks and other process inefficiencies that can be addressed promptly.
5. Level Sensors are essential to scale levels in fluid distribution and storage containers. In manufacturing industries that use fluids, level sensors help monitor them to ensure their rate of use, required disposal quantities, and presence throughout a fluid-containing system, hence, a better overall operation process.

Conclusion 

• Smart sensors are revolutionising manufacturing industries by enhancing monitoring capabilities and improving productivity.
• Smart sensors collect data from the plant environment and provide real-time insights, anticipate breakdowns, initiate maintenance, and automate data logging.
• The most common smart sensors in manufacturing industries, including temperature, infrared, equipment health, production line, and level sensors, monitor overall plant operations.

If you want to boost your manufacturing process and productivity, smart sensors might be the way to achieve it. Partner with Your Comms Group, and let us help you define your plant needs and choose the best IoT Business Solutions, including smart sensors, that fit your business the most.