The Customer
IDT is a manufacturing facility in the fast-growing industrial hub of Penang Malaysia that has been in business since 2010. The facility manufactures Trumeter’s entire range of electronic and mechanical products including timers, counters, advanced panel meters and measuring wheels. The factory is fully accredited with ISO 9001:2015 and has world class quality systems with a DPPM of less than 232.
The Challenge
Circuit boards for electronics are manufactured on the SMT line with high end equipment such as Fuji and Panasonic chip shooters, MPM Printing machines and Heller Ovens. The soldering oven produces heat and fumes, which are pulled by a blower fan through a cleaning system and up a chimney. The fumes leave a deposit on the blades, which eventually builds up and causes the bearing to collapse.
The fan is above the ceiling in the roof space, which is not visible and not easy to access, so staff cannot tell when it’s time for the fan to be cleaned and serviced. When the fan breaks down, the oven cannot be run and production must stop. With service appointments often booking two weeks out, the downtime significantly disrupts production.
"It's a huge relief knowing that the fan is being monitored and we'll be alerted when the current goes out of spec. We can relax and focus on production."
The Solution
IDT installed three Advanced Panel Meters on the blower fan to measure the current being drawn by the motor. The APM Power Meter measures motor current, the APM Volt Meter measures incoming voltage, and the APM Process Meter measures room temperature. All three APMs are connected to Trumeter Cloud with the APM Gateway so the team can receive notifications without physically checking the readings every day.
When working properly, the fan draws between 2.5 to 2.7 amps. When the current drifts to 3 amps, the IDT team has Trumeter Cloud configured to send a notification so they know to proactively schedule an appointment to have the fan serviced / cleaned. The team also analyzes trends in Trumeter Cloud to monitor deterioration of the motor to plan for replacements when it’s past its useful life.
The Outcome
- The team eliminates down time of the SMT line associated with unplanned outages of the oven
- The team can proactively schedule fan maintenance at convenient times that do not interfere with production
- The team saves time and reduces stress by not having to manually check the APM readings, instead getting push notifications when the current drifts
- The team can proactively plan and budget for fan replacement based on data trends over time
