Among the most recent news of the specific market, there is the takeover of Test Motors, specialized in the predictive maintenance of electric motors and generators, by Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI), which so widens its portfolio for the condition based monitoring, permitting to identify appliances’ failures before they occur and therefore expensive machine downtimes.
Headquartered in Barcelona, Test Motors offers in fact products and services that detect anomalies and problems on electric motors before they cause damages to manifacturing cycles, providing indications about how and when to carry out repairs. This takeover follows the one occurred in 2018 of OtoSense, a start-up that has developed a “sensorial interpretation” software able to detect and to recognize sounds or vibrations, as well as to identify potential problems on industrial machinery or in the motor of a car before they can cause damages.
Analog Devices provides for combining the software by OtoSense with the monitoring skills by Test Motors to create solutions that offer an advanced complete snapshot of the health state of the machine, favouring the prevention of a broader range of potential failures.
«The machine maintenance largely depends on expert technicians and engineers able to detect and to diagnose problems that can lead to unplanned machine downtimes – stated Kevin Carlin, Vice President Automation and Energy Group, of Analog Devices. – There are not sufficient skilled professionals to keep pace with the demand because the number of machines to be monitored is steeply rising. Condition based monitoring applications by ADI, implemented by the takeovers of Test Motors and OtoSense, will face the problem by supplying customers with a system able to execute the complete timely detection of anomalies, to avoid unexpected expensive machine downtimes».
