Materials Handling - Plant Services

TECHNOLOGY HANDBOOK

Materials Handling

INSIDE: Context-aware technology: What are the hurdles

to adoption, and who’s leading the charge? / p2

Use overhead crane maintenance zones to safely maintain cranes without sacrificing productivity / p8

Industrial-strength blockchain / p12

Vision-enhanced robots that can halt their movement on a factory line if they

sense an obstruction. Smarter real-time condition monitoring systems that can

alert you that a fleet vehicle is going to need service soon because it’s been slog-

ging through lousy weather. Sensors and drone-enabled digital photography that combine

to create a rich facility data history that can help a utility company, for example, spot an

emerging structural problem at a substation before it can turn into a catastrophe.

It’s not science fiction, and it’s not a vision of the manufacturing and materials movement

environment 20 years from now. It’s what context-aware technology – tech that detects

and records details about the environment in which an asset is operating – looks like today.

Early adopters of context-aware technologies largely have been driven by a few specific

goals, say Seegrid (www. seegrid.com) VP of engineering Sid Wiesner and Cisco (www.

cisco.com) manufacturing services business development manager Bret Small: more-flexible

automation, improved regulatory compliance, and/or better worker safety.

Customers’ desire for more-customized products is helping spur adoption of vision-en-

hanced robots and other context-aware tech on production lines, especially in the auto-

motive space, Wiesner says. Automakers are “moving to larger areas of automation, and

they’re looking for more-flexible automation as they have to adapt to changing market

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TECHNOLOGY HANDBOOK: Materials Handling 2

Context-aware technology: What are the hurdles to adoption, and who’s leading the charge?Early adopters of context-aware technologies largely have been driven by a few specific goals

By Christine LaFave Grace, managing editor



requirements and a more-competitive

landscape,” he says. “Now they’re changing

(their line) more frequently, so they need

automation that can be flexible as they

change over.”

The pharmaceutical industry’s tight regula-

tory requirements have made drug com-

panies early adopters of asset sensors and

RFID tags, says Small.

“Because the pharmaceutical manufactur-

ing process is tightly regulated by the FDA,

there are specific procedures that you put

in place that say, ‘This piece of equipment

will be calibrated every 12 months or 18

months,’ ” he says. “And one of the chal-

lenges for some of our larger customers

where they had 3,000 pieces of equipment

... (was) the 18 months would come up and

they wouldn’t be able to locate that piece

of equipment that required calibration. So

they would have to file a discrepancy report

with the FDA saying, ‘We did not calibrate

this per our procedure because we simply

couldn’t find it.’ ”

Besides aiding in FDA compliance, pharma-

ceutical companies have found that RFID

tags also allow them to be more efficient in

preparing smaller, batch runs of a particular

product, Small says. “They would spend in

some cases five to six hours searching for

a set of 20 pieces of equipment that would

have to be assembled to make a batch run,”

he says. “By having tags on critical pieces

So

urce

: See

gri

d

“Customers’ desire for more-customized products is helping spur adoption of

vision-enhanced robots and automated vision-guided pal-

let trucks and tow tractors.”



of equipment, they could

change and eight- to 10-

hour search time into an

hour or two.”

As sensor technology and

robotics become less ex-

pensive, adoption and use

of context-aware tech will

continue to accelerate, say

Sandra DiMatteo, who leads

marketing strategy for Bent-

ley’s asset management and

operations products, and

Bentley senior product mar-

keting manager David Huie

(www.bentley.com).

For hospitals and other

healthcare providers, Small

points out, RTLS (real-time

location system) technology

is “absolutely mainstream,”

as fast location of medical

equipment, drugs, person-

nel, and more can be a mat-

ter of life or death. Manu-

facturers, too, he says, are

starting to appreciate the

weighty consequences of

unnecessary waits and how

new tools can help business-

es avoid these. “I think we’re

seeing the inflection point

also occurring in the indus-

trial space,” he says.

DiMatteo shares the senti-

ment. “I do think there’s go-

ing to be a dramatic shift in

the next three to five years,”

she says. That shift will be

driven in part, Huie says, by

“constant cost pressures for

these enterprises to become

more efficient over time.”

Uptake (www.uptake.com)

co-founder and CEO Brad

Keywell, who previously

co-founded Groupon, sees

competitive demands push-

ing context awareness – as a

tool in industrial companies’

data arsenal – forward as

well. The ability “to gather

every ounce of relevant in-

formation and find early pat-

terns that indicate signs of

impending activity” is new,

but it will be a vital asset for

forward-thinking industrial

businesses, he suggests.

“Whether it’s at a substation, an oilfield, a windpower farm, or another remote site, the use of asset sensors and aerial/digital photography can enable the automatic creation of 3D models of a facility or a particular asset as it exists right now.”

So

urce

: Ben

tley



“Those companies that are ... looking out

the front window rather than the rearview

mirror are very in tune with the opportuni-

ties that we are opening up through pre-

dictive insight,” Keywell says.

That familiar combo of financial and cultural

issues has held the brakes on adopting con-

text-aware tech for some manufacturers.

From a financial perspective, the expecta-

tion is that as early adopters prove out

their business cases and the technologies

themselves become not only less costly but

more durable and sophisticated, cost-based

hesitancy to adopt will decline. The cultural

issue is another matter.

David Miller, senior safety director at Ad-

vanced Technology Services (ATS, www.

advancedtech.com), has seen it firsthand

as a service provider. “When you take

an existing technology and migrate it to

another industry, they’re a little slow on

the uptake,” he says. “The technology on

forklifts today – you can buy a system that

tracks the forklifts, has an accelerometer

that tells you where it’s been impacted;

you can see where you’ve got an acci-

dent; it will do automatic checklists – but

a lot of companies still haven’t done that.”

As with other technologies, Miller notes,

“They’ve been doing it (one) way for 30

years, and it’s worked for them for 30

years, why try something different?”

But companies face a blind spot, according

to Keywell, if “they’re thinking about today

or yesterday rather than thinking about one

year or five years from now.”

And vision problems are preventing some

manufacturers from grasping what’s already

out there, available, and in use – or how

it relates to technologies they’re already

familiar with, says Rick Veague, CTO at IFS

North America (www.ifsworld.com).

“Sometimes I get blank looks in the sense

that it sounds like ‘Star Wars’ – it’s off in the

future someplace,” says Veague. “Yet at the

same time, those same people are wearing

Fitbits on their arms; they’re wearing Apple

smartwatches; they’re carrying smartphones

that give you access to virtually anything

anywhere in the world at any time.”

The challenge Veague sees is to help manu-

facturers understand that the same types of

context-aware technologies, applied in the

industrial space, can give unprecedented

insights (also available anywhere, at any

time) into some of the most cost-intensive

assets and equipment in a facility. Pull up

the ID for an asset, either in a control room,

via a mobile device, or by scanning the as-

set on-site, and “just by looking at it, all of

a sudden you have full awareness of the

maintenance history about that,” he says.

Moreover, the technology itself isn’t prohibi-



tively complex, Small asserts. “I think maybe

the biggest misperception – and maybe it

was a correct perception five or six years

ago, but it isn’t true today – is that it’s com-

plicated, that it requires experts to install

and experts to maintain and it’s not yet a

mainstream type of technology that most

people will feel comfortable with.” With ID

tags and other context-aware technologies,

“We’ve got people from very high-tech

manufacturing environments like freescale

semiconductor manufacturing inside of a

clean room to very dirty types of operations

like underground mines keeping workers

safe,” he adds.

Seegrid’s Wiesner sees his own company

as well as others in the tech and manufac-

turing space just scratching the surface in

terms of what context-aware technologies

can do. “As we change our approach and

our view of how data streams could be used

for other applications, I think you start to

unlock it,” Wiesner says.

Bentley’s Huie has a vision for making as-

set management even smarter by going

beyond 3D modeling tech to 4D: “Imagine

adding a fourth dimension to the reality

mesh so that you can, for example, flip back

or forward through time to understand the

asset as it has evolved,” he says. This per-

spective, he says, could help you identify

precisely when, for instance, a crack in a

bridge or a vessel occurred, and help you

understand its causes.

Veague offers this advice for businesses

trying to get their arms around context-

aware tech: “I really believe that in context-

aware, whether it’s wearables or IoT kinds

of things, the most important project you

can do is your first one. Once you experi-

ment and you do some basic things, I think

it becomes very clear where the real busi-

ness drivers are and how to drive business

benefit using context-aware technologies.”

Enabling smarter real-time decisions and

business projections based on better (not

just more, but better) data is what context

awareness is all about, Veague and Keywell

hold. “You can’t simply look at dashboards

about the past,” Keywell says. “You have to

figure out ways to look into the future.”

“ Those companies that are ... looking out the front window rather than the rearview mirror are very in tune with the opportunities.”

– Brad Keywell, Uptake

PowerGuard Switch Array

Power Interrupting Section

The Conductix-Wampfler PowerGuard TM system is an engineered solution for removing power from a section of your conductor bar without having to shut down your entire runway. This system is perfect for runways with multiple cranes. You can safely service one crane and still keep your other cranes running.

PowerGuard - Electrification Isolation System The PowerGuard TM switching system combined with Power Interrupting Sections creates an electrically isolated and safe maintenance zone that is designed to never accidentally re-energize - keeping you and your machine safe and protecting your investment.

PowerGuard TM features:

• Grounded maintenance zone • Designed for your specific application • Three switch sets for safe operation • Visual voltage indicator and voltage test points • Pre-engineered kit, which includes the switches mounted in the cabinet, with the wiring scheme provided.

[email protected] | www.conductix.usTel: (402) 339 9300 | Fax: (402) 339 9627 | Toll Free: (800) 521 4888Conductix-Wampfler | 10102 F Street | Omaha, Nebraska 68127 - U.S.A.

Power Disconnect Switch for Maintenance Zones

https://goo.gl/YXtFKG


Conducting routine overhead crane maintenance is necessary to ensure the safety

of crane operators and nearby personnel, and to keep your crane systems running

properly as long as possible. Even well-maintained cranes need emergency repairs

from time to time. During these maintenance and repair sessions, it is critical to provide a

safe working environment for your crane maintenance personnel. At the same time, while

one crane is undergoing maintenance, it is also beneficial to avoid powering down the entire

crane runway so the production team can still use other cranes on the same crane runway.

Is it possible to safely shut down one crane while keeping the others running? The answer is

yes – by creating one or more “maintenance zones” on your crane runway system.

WHAT IS A CRANE MAINTENANCE ZONE?Crane maintenance zones are designated areas within the conductor bar runway crane

undergoing maintenance can be parked. In that specific section of the conductor bar, the

crane can be powered down while keeping the rest of the runway energized.

Shutting down power to a single area of conductor bar is not as straightforward as it might

seem. Doing so requires a special series of conductor bar components and a correctly

wired switching system. The trick is to avoid having the maintenance zone inadvertently

energized by the adjacent cranes that are still operating. To safely maintain the crane, the


Use overhead crane maintenance zones to safely maintain cranes without sacrificing productivityIs it possible to safely shut down one crane while keeping the others running? The answer is yes.

by Rod Griffith, Conductix



maintenance zone must be grounded while

maintenance people do the work. A well-

designed zone will protect maintenance

workers from accidental electrocution.

A correctly set up maintenance zone will

disconnect power in the zone while leav-

ing the main part of the runway energized;

keep the power off, even if an adjacent

crane tries to move into the maintenance

zone; and ground the maintenance zone,

thereby preventing the crane under main-

tenance from ever becoming energized.

The solution to the problem is to add an

electrically isolated “buffer zone” before the

maintenance zone.

Figure 1 shows a typical right-end mainte-

nance zone circled in green, that is preced-

ed by a buffer zone in blue. In addition to

the end maintenance zones, you can cre-

ate one or more maintenance zones at any

point within the crane conductor bar run-

way. In that case, buffer zones are set up on

either side of the middle maintenance zone.

How do you install a maintenance zone?

The first step to install a maintenance zone

like the one shown in Figure 1 is to add a

“power interrupting section (PIS)” into each

of the three phase legs of the conductor bar

runway’s right end. A PIS consists of three

special conductor bar segments each with

a center power feed point (shown in black

in Figure 2). Two 1/2” air gaps electrically

isolate the middle section. (As an alterna-

tive to air gaps, some conductor bar models

utilize insulating materials at the two isola-

tion points.)

Why is the second gap needed? Isn’t it

sufficient just to power down the middle

section? The answer is that even if power

is shut off in the middle section, a tandem

(double-headed) current collector from an

adjacent still-operating crane coming in

Figure 1. Example location of crane maintenance zone



from the left can bridge the

first gap and accidentally

reenergize the buffer zone.

If a worker parks the crane

that needs maintenance

in the buffer zone, it can

become live without the

maintenance personnel be-

ing aware. By moving the

crane all the way into the

far right section, beyond the

second air gap, and using

the correct switching sys-

tem as shown in Figure 3, it

will stay unpowered even if

another crane inadvertently

energizes the buffer zone.

MAINTENANCE ZONE SWITCHING SYSTEMConductix-Wampfler re-

cently introduced a main-

tenance zone switching

system. The PowerGuard

system correctly switches

off power to the buffer and

maintenance zones, then

grounds the maintenance

section to create a safe

zone. The system increases

user safety by providing

visual LED indications and

test points at the panel.

These LEDs are tied to the

Figure 2. Example power interrupting section

Figure 3. Buffer zone being energized by adjacent crane

Center Power Feeds

Air Gap Cross-Section

Buffer Section Switched off but being re-energized by crane coming from the left

Crane Under Maintenance Still grounded, even with the adjacent crane energizing the buffer zone

Energized Main Runway

Adjacent Crane



maintenance zone wiring

and show the maintenance

team that the maintenance

zone is de-energized before

beginning any work.

The PowerGuard switches

within the switch panel

distribute power to the vari-

ous PIS segments. With all

switched “on” (see Figure

4), power flows from the

power feed connected to

the main runway (yellow

wires), then to the buffer

zone (wires in blue), then

to the maintenance zone

(wires in green). Each of the

three switch positions has a

specific function:

• Position One: Power flows

from the main runway

to the “buffer zone” and

the “maintenance zone.”

When the maintenance

team wants to work on

the last crane on the run-

way, they move it into the

maintenance zone at the

far right end.

• Position Two: Power is

turned off to both the buf-

fer zone and the mainte-

nance zone.

• Position Three: The main-

tenance zone is grounded,

but the buffer zone is

not. Having the buffer

zone and using the cor-

rect switching sequence

is critical for creating safe

maintenance zones since

a “live” crane moving too

close to the maintenance

area can accidentally

energize the buffer. If this

happens, and the switches

are properly wired and se-

quenced, the maintenance

zone will stay grounded.

A maintenance zone solves

common problems associ-

ated with maintenance,

especially for systems that

run multiple cranes on a

single runway. Adding a

maintenance zone switch-

ing system provides a safe

solution for conductor bar

applications, and allows

for maximum crane up-

time while protecting both

people and equipment.

Rod Griffith is director of marketing

for Conductix-Wampfler

(www.conductix.us).

Figure 4. Diagram of

the inside of a PowerGuard Control Box


The increasingly digitalized industrial space is a prime candidate for deployment of

blockchain technology. Operations and maintenance organizations depend on ef-

ficient and secure collaboration among trustworthy suppliers and partners. Block-

chain replaces human risk factors and paper transactions with a shared, synchronized, tam-

per-resistant digital database or “distributed ledger” that provides end-to-end encryption,

streamlines cross-organizational and cross-border logistics, and improves traceability and

accountability. Originally conceived for “smart contracts,” blockchain now has the potential

to solve industrial business problems.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR INDUSTRYMany of today’s supply chains span multiple organizations, tracking systems, and geograph-

ic locations, making it hard to track goods or trace the origin of incidents, notes Matthew

Kerner, partner general manager for blockchain at Microsoft. “Blockchain dramatically en-

hances transparency, enabling all parties to trace a product’s journey along the supply chain

with a single view of the truth,” Kerner says.

In manufacturing, where much equipment is connected and the internet of things (IoT) is

becoming commonplace, solutions like Microsoft’s Azure Blockchain platform have real

potential. “With tools like digital shipping notices and RFID scanning, we can track products

digitally as soon as they hit the plant floor,” says Kerner. Microsoft’s open-sourced Coco


Industrial-strength blockchainRemote and predictive maintenance gets a boost via “smart contract” technology

By Sheila Kennedy, CMRP, contributing editor



framework was developed to accelerate

adoption of enterprise blockchain networks

by consortia of enterprises needing confi-

dential computing.

Oracle’s Blockchain Cloud Service is an

enterprise-grade distributed ledger plat-

form for sharing data and conducting trans-

actions within and outside the Oracle cloud.

“It can be an ideal way to manage product

assembly, helping businesses track individu-

al components throughout the manufactur-

ing process and providing a simplified way

to identity the point of origin, should there

be any concerns or defects,” says Frank

Xiong, group vice president of blockchain

product development at Oracle.

Xiong adds that as connected devices

become more prevalent in industrial envi-

ronments, blockchain technology can help

safeguard the data gathered by these de-

vices, ensuring that data sets and analyses

are not altered or compromised.

Shaan Mulchandani, director of security

and blockchain lead at Aricent, believes

that industrial blockchain applications can

“streamline asset inventory, supply-chain

functions, and compliance management

through shared reads of an immutable, dis-

tributed ledger with associated authorized

organizations.” The collaborative nature

of such applications allows for remote and

predictive maintenance with increased ac-

countability, he explains.

In addition, the impact of operational tech-

nology (OT) compromises can be lessened

as data historians and configuration back-

ups may be distributed and restorable, adds

Mulchandani. Consensus-based validation

can significantly increase IT-OT security

through distributed authorization for up-

dates to control functions and detection of

unauthorized devices or human machine

interface (HMI) software.

The SAP Leonardo Blockchain Co-Innova-

tion program allows customers and part-

ners to explore potential use cases and

business models. For instance, blockchain

could significantly speed up manufacturing

business processes as it allows for faster

transactions (product delivery, quality

verification, product labeling, paperwork

signoff, etc.) that need to be accessed by

multiple parties with high levels of trust

and dependency, says Gil Perez, SVP of

digital assets and IoT at SAP.

“Further, its ability to track and trace prod-

ucts from inception with a trusted immu-

tability could dramatically reduce supply

chain leakage, fraud, and the production of

counterfeit or flawed goods,” adds Perez.

APPLICATION INITIATIVESIBM recently announced it is collaborat-

ing with a consortium of major food sup-

pliers and retailers to tackle food safety

and transparency challenges using the IBM

Blockchain Platform. The collaboration



“enables participants to exchange data that

could include farm origination details, batch

numbers, manufacturing and plant process-

ing data, temperature, expiration dates, and

shipping details,” says Brigid McDermott,

vice president of blockchain at IBM. “This

information is digitally recorded on the

blockchain,” she adds.

When information is digitally recorded

“from farm to fork” and a grower, manufac-

turer, or retailer becomes aware of an issue,

participants can “quickly identify the root

of the problem and surgically address it in a

manner that is better for consumers and the

supply chain,” explains McDermott.

For the distributed, heavily regulated

transportation industry, Ericsson devel-

oped a rail-use case for its Blockchain Data

Integrity service on GE’s Predix platform.

It addresses the governance and audit-

ability of remote rail asset installation and

maintenance, as well as the integrity of

field-service work orders. The microservice

ensures that “data captured during field

inspections and/or from IoT systems is

reliable and consistent, even as it is trans-

ferred across systems.”

Email contributing editor Sheila Kennedy, CMRP, man-

aging director of Additive Communications, at

[email protected]

Video: Ericsson on blockchain: http://plnt.sv/1801-TT01

Reference webistes

www.azure.microsoft.com

www.oracle.com

www.aricent.com

www.sap.com

www.ibm.com

www.ericsson.com


ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

MAINTAIN CRANES SAFELY WITHOUT PRODUCTIVITY LOSSES BY SETTING UP MAINTENANCE ZONESRoutine crane maintenance helps ensure the safety

of personnel and keeps your cranes running properly.

To do so, maintenance personnel must shut off

power to the crane while doing the work.

However, operations also want to run other cranes

on the same crane runway. Is this possible?

Yes – by creating one or more “crane maintenance

zones” on the runway.

https://www.plantservices.com/assets/Media/1805/overhead-crane-maintenance-zones2.pdf

eHANDBOOK: Materials Handling 15

Conductix-Wampfler | 10102 F Street – Omaha, Nebraska 68127 – USA

Tel: (800) 521 4888 (402) 339 9300 | Fax: (800) 780 8329 (402) 339 9627 | [email protected] | www.conductix.us

Overhead Crane Maintenance Zones

Safely Maintain Cranes without Sacrificing Productivity

Routine overhead crane maintenance and repairs are critical for the long-term safety of personnel and longevity

of the equipment. However, operators that run multiple cranes on a single runway must be able to shut down

one crane while keeping the others running. Fortunately, this situation can be solved by creating one or more

"maintenance zones" on the crane runway system.

What is a Crane Maintenance Zone?

A crane maintenance zone is a designated area on the conductor bar runway that is powered down while the

rest of the runway remains energized. However, isolating an area of a conductor bar is not as straightforward as

it seems. The setup requires a special series of conductor bar components and a properly wired switching

system that will keep the maintenance zone from being accidentally energized by the other cranes still in

operation.

A properly installed and wired maintenance zone will:

• Disconnect power in the zone while leaving the main part of the runway energized

• Keep the power off, even if an adjacent crane tries to move into the maintenance zone

• Have a properly grounded maintenance zone that will prevent the crane from becoming energized, and

people from being electrocuted

The solution is to add an electrically-isolated "buffer zone" before the maintenance zone. In Fig. 1, a typical

right-end maintenance zone (green) is preceded by a buffer zone (blue). Additionally, one or more maintenance

zones can be established at any point on the conductor bar runway, and buffer zones are then established on

either side of the middle maintenance zone.

Figure 1. End Maintenance Zones – On the right side



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