Pump Monitoring Meets the IIoT

Industrial internet of things (IIoT) technologies support online, continuous condition monitoring for pumps Because pumps are often critical to process operation and safety, condition monitoring for pumps has long been a respected practice in the chemical process industries (CPI). However, the introduction of modern technologies and tools, developed with the industrial internet of things (IIoT) in mind, is changing the face of an already good thing and making it even better.   Condition monitoring for pumps Through the years, there have been several schools of thought on pump maintenance. For many years, pump maintenance was reactive in that pumps were run to failure. While this approach kept costs low at the onset, once a failure occurred, the loss could reach several thousand dollars in maintenance costs and even more in lost production and regulatory fines. Then along came preventive, or scheduled, maintenance, where maintenance activities were performed on pumps according to a schedule prescribed by the manufacturer or historical data. However, there was no guarantee that the maintenance was necessary or would prevent an unplanned failure between maintenance intervals. As a result, processors began to consider and practice…