Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Online Condition Monitoring
• Offline Condition Monitoring
• Difference Between Online And Offline Condition Monitoring
• Benefits of Online Condition Monitoring
• Examples of sectors/companies using online condition monitoring technique
• Conclusion

Condition Monitoring: An Introduction

Whenever one wants to start a business, production unit, factory, or company, the prime questions that come to mind are the Return on Investment (ROI) and Cost (Fixed or Fluctuating). Every entrepreneur aims to earn more profits by reducing the cost of production. Profitable units make their market and brand on their own.

Every company wants to obtain such technology and mechanical equipment, which costs them less, but the major thing is the feedback or monitoring the progress of each production line. Monitoring the heads of administrative functions, quality inspection, production, strategy-making process, or operational analysis is important to get the best.

Out of the many, one of the vital and universal techniques of monitoring is Condition Monitoring. Read more about the difference between online and offline condition monitoring.

So what is Condition Monitoring and why do we need it? It is a mechanical technique for monitoring the vibrations, temperature, and other machine condition parameters. This is done during the production process to identify a significant change in machinery, which indicates a developing fault.

Condition Monitoring is a significant component of predictive maintenance. This technique enables to prevention of consequential damages, avoiding its consequences, and the schedule is done on a prior basis of machine maintenance.

It has the benefit of identifying the smaller fault before transforming it into a major concern. It is generally used in rotating equipment (including gearboxes, reciprocating, and centrifugal machinery), compressors, pumps, electric motors, presses, etc.

Online Condition Monitoring 

Online Condition Monitoring is one type of Condition Monitoring that emphasizes the continuous monitoring of a machine or any production process. Online Condition Monitoring is a non-interrupted process. There is no word like shutdown in Online Condition Monitoring. This helps in cost reduction and prevents unexpected costs. We can't afford a loss in production and equipment failure in today's competitive age due to increasing demand. Read more about the difference between online and offline condition monitoring.

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Offline Condition Monitoring

Offline Condition Monitoring is a term used for less critical or semi-critical assets where periodic scanning is required, and continuous scanning is not required. In Offline Condition Monitoring, regular scanning of assets is good enough to practice. It is a kind of manual monitoring.

What is the difference between Online And Offline Condition Monitoring?

The significant differences between online and offline condition monitoring are:

Firstly, Online Condition Monitoring is a continuous process of scanning and finding out the loopholes in the machinery engaged in the production process to reduce cost and interruptions in the production while Offline Condition Monitoring is a timely scanning process that is not a continuous one but done whenever required; and is a type of periodic scanning.

Secondly, Online Condition Monitoring is a window that might be the period when users are permitted to online connect to the database. At the same time, Offline Condition Monitoring is a window of maintenance that might be the period when access to the database directly is unavailable to the users.

Thirdly, Online Condition Monitoring helps the users to pre-estimate the cost of faults and figure out the level of the fault, including prevention of significant failure in the machinery and equipment, while in Offline Condition Monitoring, this feature is a little bit missing because the scanning is periodic and not 100 percent time scheduled. In Offline Condition Monitoring, machines and equipment are monitored randomly.

Benefits of Online Condition Monitoring

There are several benefits of opting for Online Condition Monitoring of machinery and technology in a plant/factory/establishment. Some are listed below:

1. Online Condition Monitoring gives you timely and secure information about machine condition.
2. It helps in pre-estimating the upcoming faults and figures out major ones.
3. Online Condition Monitoring helps in reducing operating costs and total costs.
4. You can measure the actual depreciation values of the assets.
5. Online Condition Monitoring helps in reducing unplanned downtime.
6. Reduction in maintenance cost.
7. It helps in supporting ongoing reliability.
8. It reduces risk and fewer inspections.
9. Provides the surety of confined and remote assets.
10. It helps you in drafting out hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly statements.
11. It helps in providing direct access to the database.
12. It makes you more efficient and compliant in all respects.
13. Helpful during audits and maintaining records.
14. Scheduled or preventive maintenance reduces expenses and results in better equipment availability.
15. It is an advanced and latest technique to monitor the conditions of machinery.
16. Reduces the efforts for inspection and maintenance.

Examples of sectors/companies using online condition monitoring technique

1. Automatic
2. Public Sector
3. Oil and gas
4. FMCG industries,
5. Manufacturing industries,
6. Hydropower plants, etc.

Conclusion

There are different types of machinery used in the production process. Some are critical machinery, some are essential machinery, and others are for general purposes or required to balance the plant machinery; whatever the work of these mechanical parts, Online Condition Monitoring is needed. The Online Condition Monitoring instruments gives us continued reports and the Condition of our machines.

Critical and essential machinery can not be avoided; if it fails, whole production lines fail, which will negatively affect the plant's total production. Total productivity will be hampered, which will raise the cost of production and unexpected costs to the plant. Increasing the production cost adversely affects the production department staff and laborers, too, and ultimately, the company's profitability or particular plant. Being the leading engineering company in UAE, Technomax offers online and offline condition monitoring services. 

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