Industry 4.0 – the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies – has vast benefits for large and small companies.

The ability to monitor assets in remote locations using Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) devices is a game changer.

The AlphaX Machine Health Monitor (MHM) is being used collect data from wireless vibration sensors at a mine in Malaysia.

The Kemaman plant on the east coast of Malaysia extracts a Grade A specification of calcium hydrate. This fine white powder is used in many applications from construction to dentistry and food production.

Our AlphaX IoT device is utilising wireless vibration sensors to monitor the operation of the mine’s ball mills. A type of grinder, a ball mill consists of a hollow cylindrical shell rotating about its axis. The shell is partially filled with steel balls and the material to be grinded. As the balls drop from near the top of the shell, they fall and crush the material with their impact.

Sibelco affixed our tiny device (the AlphaX measures just 12cm x 9cm x 5.5cm) to the ball mill, plugged in various sensors to the ports, and connected their own wires to source power.

Once the device is turned on, it starts measuring whatever it is that the customer wishes to measure – in this case vibrations.

The AlphaX transmits the data on one of four networks: the cellular network (just like a smart phone), Sigfox and LoRaWAN™ – low-cost narrow-band networks for securely connecting IoT sensors to the Cloud – and Wi-Fi. Transmission via Bluetooth is also possible.

Together with our software and an internet connection, the customer can access a live stream of data from anywhere in the world.

Via wireless vibration sensors, Sibelco is able to monitor the vibrations of its ball mills onsite at the Kemaman plant, from its Asian regional office in Singapore, and from its global headquarters in Belgium. It’s also possible for us to review their ball mills from our offices in Melbourne.

Our software includes artificial intelligence (AI) scripts that automatically detect issues and trends within the machinery’s various components. The Sibelco team is using this data as a powerful tool for proactive maintenance.

This automated way of monitoring machinery can be adapted to suit a number of industries.

Scale your Wireless Vibration Sensors and Monitoring Capabilities

The key to our success with AlphaX is the opportunity it creates for companies to monitor more machines and equipment, more often, and automatically.

Best of all, you can use the software to monitor different operation processes at multiple sites – all with the one licence.

This has huge implications for industrial operations.

The one thing CFOs really hate is a per-tag system where they pay a large amount for the software and then cop an extra charge for each new licence.

Our software licence is completely unlimited. Our standard version of software can accommodate as many users as your hardware allows. Every worker in the company logs onto exactly the same platform across multiple processes and multiple sites. We can connect hundreds of devices. It’s a simple, easy process.

Automate your Monitoring with Industrial IoT

The transition to this type of technology has benefits for many industries. Improve your connectivity and you’ll find correlations in your data that would have been impossible manually. Be the innovator in your industry.