Powerful production data acquisition (PDA) and machine data acquisition (MDA) deliver reliable data on all plant and machinery. However, production planners, work planners, foremen, maintenance staff and management all have very different requirements. A PDA/MDA system therefore needs to be highly flexible. Machine controls specific to manufacturers often unnecessarily limit options.

What is required are productivity indicators, energy consumption, quantities, the recording of good and defective parts, reporting of faults, analysis of downtimes, indicators for management reports and an overall view of the machine hall. Machine data provides information for plant monitoring, planning and optimisation processes as well as for preventive maintenance. Deviations between target and actual values are recorded online and detected at an early stage.

Such a wide scope of needs requires an autonomous acquisition and evaluation system that is able to function flexibly in parallel to a machine control system and is capable of integration into existing infrastructures at little effort. No additional computing equipment is required for data acquisition and monitoring: the same system records data independently from the machine control system, evaluates it in real time and issues alarm messages. Control systems, systems for work preparation, ERP, PDA or MES systems can also be integrated.

A complete system for acquisition, analysis and alarms

• Machine data acquisition: An almost unlimited number of signal sources can be acquired centrally, generally without any measurement transducers being required. Sensors are connected, as analog or digital, to the data logger, with system controls and peripheral devices also being integrated via interfaces such as Profibus, Modbus OPC DA / UA.
• Machine monitoring: Machine parameters are continuously monitored and can undergo batch-based recording. An integrated data memory is PC-independent and stores all measurement data smoothly and reliably. If limit values are exceeded, an automated alarm is issued directly from the hardware.
• Fault analysis: Thanks to the 100% synchronous sampling of multiple signal sources at microsecond level, even short interference pulses can be reliably detected. Fault events, e.g. limit value violations, can be recorded to enable sporadic errors to also undergo quick analysis. Meaningful logic and time diagrams help to determine the sources of faults more easily.
• Establishing characteristic values: With the help of powerful internal calculation channels, any formula can be used for analysis as well as for establishing characteristic values. This also allows even complex evaluations to be used for determining plant efficiency.
• Monitoring: All plant data, processes and characteristic values are clearly visualized in graphics and overviews. These dashboards give an instant view of all essential information already during data acquisition. Zooming also enables detailed views. Areas can be selected and compared with historical data.

Engineering experts from Delphin provide a range of support to users: from data acquisition and the development of drivers and applications through to individualised PDA / MDA and monitoring systems.