moneo: IIoT platform
Use cases

Continuous level measurement on tanks of a CIP system with moneo RTM and radar sensors

Level monitoring with radar sensors

Measurement of the levels in storage tanks of a CIP test facility with radar sensors and their visualisation, monitoring and documentation with moneo RTM.

Initial situation

The tanks are monitored via two limit switches.
These report to the control system via a switching signal

whether the tank is empty
or whether the tank is full.

Levels in between cannot be detected.
Thus, it can only be detected to a limited extent how much of which medium is actually available at that moment.

Aim of the project

The aim of the project is to ensure the plant availability. By precisely detecting the level of the cleaning medium in the tanks, moneo is to inform the operator in good time when to organise the supply of the respective media.

The monitoring system is to be implemented without interfering with the control of the CIP system.

This is realised by continuous level measurement including data analysis.

Implementation

The moneo RTM software is centrally installed on a server.

One radar level sensor of the type LW2720 was installed on each of the 4 storage tanks.
The data from the radar sensors is connected to the server via an IO-Link master using an internal VLAN.

After installing the sensors, only the reference height must be set. This can be done with the following tools, for example:

moneo configure (part of moneo, separate licence QMP020 required)
moneo blue app (IO-Link Bluetooth adapter EIO330 is additionally required)

The reference height is used to define the zero point and thus the reference point for the level measurement.

Result

Organisation of needs-based maintenance

The availability of the plant was ensured by continuous level measurement and data analysis with moneo RTM. It is ensured that there is a sufficient quantity of medium in the tank.

Data acquisition and transparency are used to organise the timely procurement of refill media.

In addition to process control, further process analyses and the assessment of expected consumption quantities are possible with the help of the historical data.

The remote data access is another advantage of moneo.

System structure

IO-Link master (e.g. AL1351)
1 LW2720 level sensor LW2720

Dashboard

Application-specific dashboards can be created quickly and easily here.
In this case:

Overview of all 4 tanks with the respective current level and volume

Level in metres
Volume in litres

Analysis

Via the analysis function, the user can analyse the tank level in detail. Because the level values are permanently recorded, this data can also be viewed over days, weeks and months (historical data).

Empirical values about the availability of media.
Shown here: Determining the time for emptying or filling operations.

Level in metres
Determining the time span of an emptying process

Settings & rules: Manage thresholds

The level in the tanks is monitored by means of static limit values. For this purpose, limit values have been defined that generate a warning or an alarm within moneo if they are exceeded or not reached.

moneo "alarm type" (alarm/warning + exceeded/not reached)
Limit value for the respective alarm type
Response delay (update cycle = approx. 1 second)

Ticket processing rules

This function can be used to easily define what should happen after a warning or alarm has been triggered, e.g.:

Email notification
SAP integration

For applications where regular refilling is necessary, it is advisable to optimise the replenishment process.

For example by sending an email notification to a defined group of recipients responsible for the production supply as soon as the specified level in a tank is not reached anymore, so as to trigger the refilling process.

Calculated values

In addition to the process value of the level sensor, further useful parameters can be determined with the calculated values in moneo.

In this application, for example, not only the level is of interest but also the volume.

These are standing tank cylinders. For this tank geometry, the volume can be calculated using the "base area multiplied by height” calculation.

Current tank level in m
Factor for converting the unit of the data source, here 0.001 = m
Base area of the tank in mm²
Factor for converting the unit of the output, here 1,000,000 = litres
Scaling of the unit in mm
Base area in mm² multiplied by level in mm = volume in mm³
Scaling of the output unit from mm³ to litres (dm³)
Volume in litres as result of the calculation

Depending on the specific application, further calculations are possible:

Calculation of shortfall quantity (total volume of the tank - current volume)
Scaling level in percent
Adding up the total quantity (volume tank 1 + volume tank 2.....), for determining the total quantity in the warehouse e.g. wine

Configuration with moneo configure

If the corresponding moneo configure licence is activated, the sensor parameter data can be read and written in moneo. To set up the radar level sensor, it is necessary to set the reference height. This can simply be entered in the corresponding parameter field and written to the sensor.