HJØRRING, DENMARK —JS Proputec A/S, a pump manufacturer, has developed an Internet of Things (IoT) maintenance solution, JS Maintenance Mate®, to help its customers stay ahead of wear and tear across one or several pump systems.

Operators using JS Maintenance Mate will have direct access to pump data. The technology can identify problems and alert operators to avoid downtime and predict potential failures, while offering ease of use and communication between machinery.

“The real magic of JS Maintenance Mate is that it enables pump operators to ‘see inside’ each pump,” said Rene Jensen, head of sales at JS Proputec. “Now, we’re able to predict potential breakdowns with a high level of accuracy, enabling our customers to plan their preventative maintenance to coincide with other downtime operations.”

JS Maintenance Mate assesses RPMs, vibrations and pressure in pump bearing housings to determine wear and tear, and uses algorithms to reflect equipment stress patterns across various pump models and products.

“We’ve spent thousands of hours in our pilot setup and out at customers in Poland, Germany, Sweden, and Denmark pumping media such as meat, fish, cutoffs of chicken, pig and cow to note the effect on pump vibrations as the lamellas begin to wear down,” Jensen explained. “After doing so, we arrived at four distinct scenarios that enable us to predict the timing of breakdowns with considerable accuracy. Over time, as the device gathers more and more data across many customer installations, we will become even more accurate.”

The solution also provides product input data that can inform the research and development of better products, the company stated.

The display for JS Maintenance Mate is color-coded and, “for the color-blind among us,” also uses a smiley face system to communicate the condition of pumping processes, JS Proputec shared.

“Ease of use has been one of the most important design parameters for us for this new capability,” Jensen said. “Anyone handy with a screwdriver and a wrench, and who knows how to install a smartphone, tablet or computer app can do the job! Then it can be as simple as checking the app every now and then and responding to any notifications.”

JS Maintenance Mate is designed to be simple and straight-forward. It will be automatically integrated at no extra cost on all lamella meat processing pumps beginning this month, May 2021. The solution can also be retrofitted to existing pumps.

“We like to compare JS Maintenance Mate® to the computer-based analysis a mechanic might run on a luxury car in the workshop, obtaining data that takes into account not just the model and age of the vehicle, but also how far, fast or hard you drive it – parameters that affect, for example, how often oil changes are required,” Jensen said. “Eventually, JS Maintenance Mate® IoT devices will be able to provide even higher levels of context-sensitive, tailored intelligence that ensure razor-sharp accuracy both in terms of what might be about to go wrong, exactly when and exactly what to do about it.”

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