SW's CloudPlatform Improves Data Analytics

SW North America launches CloudPlatform, which allows the company to safely and transparently monitor its machines and use that information to improve them.

There are endless benefits to analyzing machine data, according to the company. The CloudPlatform is designed to enable users to more quickly detect and react to malfunctions, thereby reducing maintenance costs and increasing efficiency by providing a unified system for all SW machines.

The monitoring system has a solution for almost every problem, the company says. User error can negatively affect productivity, especially if it goes unnoticed over a long period of time. The cloud can help identify personnel in need of further training that can be provided by SW’s Life Academy. There’s no more need for guesswork when it comes to automation, either. When automated processes get thrown off rhythm for whatever reason, the user can recognize certain patterns in the cloud and act before productivity suffers.

The most effective way to preform maintenance on a machine is through condition-based monitoring, which is the approach that the SW CloudPlatform takes. This means significantly less downtime than reactive maintenance after a malfunction, or even planned maintenance performed on parts that might not need it.

Issues slowly arising from routine machine use can be recognized earlier and be solved before they even become a problem. SW’s CloudPlatform monitors the conditions of machine components and uploads their status daily to the NC monitors. Much of the monitoring is done via universal axis tests, which are equability tests that are supplemented by circularity tests. Equability tests measure the movement of the axes and are adept at detecting a range of factors in need of attention. For example, ball screws are watched for wear. Guideway issues such as lubrication on the slide, damage or parallelism errors can be brought to users’ attention. Backed up chips in covers and seized cover fragments also won’t go overlooked. Also, the items that equability tests might miss is covered by circularity tests. For example, slack and reversal errors with bearings and ballscrews are best represented by circularity test results.