Guarantee Actionable Insights with Real-Time Protection and Connectivity
Article Feature in Empowering Pumps Digital Magazine – September 2024
Connectivity and real-time protection in wastewater pumping systems go beyond efficient water movement. Actionable data influences reliability, costs, environmental impact, regulatory compliance, and the ability to adapt to future demands.
Originally designed as anti-ragging technology, Industrial Flow Solutions has successfully adapted it for municipal wastewater systems to not only eliminate ragging but also streamline maintenance and repairs with easy access and clear connectivity. Operators can identify and address issues promptly, reducing downtime and minimizing the impact on
service delivery.
Efficient connectivity and real-time monitoring minimize energy consumption and operational costs. By using actionable data to optimize the system and ensure smooth flow, less energy is required to move wastewater through the system. This translates into savings for utility providers and potentially lower costs for consumers.
Why We Need Connected Technology
Local asset monitoring using human labor and equipment comes at a high cost. It is more cost effective to remotely monitor pumps and other equipment than to send staff to sites when there is an emergency. This is especially crucial in an industrial landscape that has a diminishing skillset and workforce.
In addition, real-time actionable data on a centralized platform for monitored equipment allows operators to protect high-value, mission-critical equipment before catastrophic failures happen. That data helps to ensure effective predictive maintenance in an environment with increasing regulation around electronic equipment monitoring as outlined in NFPA 70B.
Key Features and Attributes to Consider When Buying Connected Monitoring Devices
DERAGGER® intelligent pump control technology from Industrial Flow Solutions uses Dynamic Torque Monitoring™ to answer the universal problem of ragged wastewater pumps. By enabling Real Time Pump Protection™ this technology can slow, stop, and clean your pump the instant any obstruction impedes operation. It also monitors the power supplied to your system, protecting the motor from damage.
Control up to 16 pumps with a built-in high-resolution touchscreen. In addition to anti-ragging protection, the DERAGGER includes a complete software lineup capable of logging up to 20 years of data and offers cloud connectivity, which unlocks crucial information to assist with making data-driven decisions.
This technology can be applied to pumps, blowers, mixers, or any rotating equipment–and across all motor starter types. Energy savings and increased efficiency are easily achieved using DERAGGER’s intelligent pump & equipment controlling and optimization tools.
Here are some key features that matter when choosing connectivity technology for wastewater pumping systems:
- Flexible/scalable connectivity “future-proof”
- Local monitoring and data logger
- Platform agnostic
- Multiple tiers/levels of connectivity
- Modbus/tcp
- Modbus/RS485
- Ethernet (Cloud Connectivity / Azure / MQTT)
- LTE (Cloud Connectivity / Azure / MQTT)
- “Smart” data actionable insight versus raw data
- Averaged / trended
- Alarms
Why Real-Time Connectivity Improves Reliability
Future proofing your pumping systems by using smart data and flexible communications is a game changer for asset protection and management. IFS offers technology products that still provide anti-ragging, but are also communications enabled with cloud capable hardware. The platform agnostic connectivity provides reliable condition monitoring with raw and processed actionable data.
With the DERAGGER from IFS, datasets remain in the same place with a predefined data structure that doesn’t have to be configured. Raw data, alarms, and condition signals are all defined in the data structure with smart data nodes.
Multiple communication protocols are packaged on one device and users can further protect assets with PowerMonitor, a tool that alarms, trips, reverses, or pauses the pumping operations when the data is out of range. Actionable insight is the key.
