Opening or shutting a valve seems like a straightforward task, until that
valve is placed in an industrial environment, surrounded by chemicals,
machinery, high heat and dangerous equipment. In such an environment,
making a mistake can be disastrous. Thankfully, new communication
protocols and sensors are now available, eliminating the risk of mistakes
by hands-on workers performing more dangerous day-to-day operations
within industrial plants worldwide.
Armed with proven experience in providing solutions for the Industrial
Internet of Things (IIoT), Belgium-based Aloxy, was ideally suited to take
on the challenge of developing a safe, efficient solution that increases
the safety of error-prone, manual valve operations. The time had come
to automate the process. Aloxy considered all options, including current
technological solutions to automate the process using wired position
indicators or limit switches, which are quite expensive to install. Having
assessed these, Aloxy decided to develop its own, more affordable, plug-
and-play wireless solution that could not only determine if valves were in
the correct position, but also enable realtime alerts, offering continuous
no-fault information on the actual position of the valves. Ultimately,
Aloxy opted for multiple low power wide area network (LPWAN) radio
technologies such as LoRaWAN
®
and DASH7 Alliance Protocol to monitor
communications from its ATEX/IECEx certified sensors, that were placed
on the valves. LoRa
®
, coined from 'long range', is a proprietary spread-
Plant Efficiency
Improvements
Industrial plants use
the newest protocols, IoT
gateways and sensors to increase
safety and improve plant efficiency
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