As novel as Smart Machine Platform Initiative type programs are for machine tools, other industrial market sectors are already commercializing the potential. Examples include maintenance diagnostics on GE aircraft engines and its Genyus diagnostic system for reciprocating compressors.
Genyus is designed to interface with existing control and supervisory systems and sensors to collect data and status parameters, says Claudi Santiago, GE senior vice president and president and CEO of GE Oil & Gas, Florence, Italy. It processes the information in a dedicated human-machine interface and clearly displays warnings, trends, diagnostics and recommendations. That enables operators to take any necessary machine control actions through the existing control panels or distributed control systems and plan maintenance actions.
The system manages approximately 10,000 associations among individual parameters, correlating more than 100 symptoms and diagnosing 50 different anomalies in critical compressor components.
| See Also |
Researchers at Oklahoma State University, meanwhile, have demonstrated the potential for adding machine intelligence to agricultural sprayers (photo). Enhanced with sensors and computers, the field sprayers dramatically increased the application efficiency by applying fertilizers and herbicides only where needed, reports John B. Solie, professor, power and machinery at Oklahoma State.
