The Wiesbaden industrial park equips itself for the future – with the help of KSB Guard

Wiesbaden’s Kalle Albert Industrial park has existed for 150 years and and is an important industrial artery in the Wiesbaden region today. Since 1997, InfraServ Wiesbaden (ISW) has been operating the 96-hectare complex, offering a comprehensive infrastructure and many services to the companies based in the industrial park. Core processes include ensuring the supply of energy and waste water disposal. 

Many of the systems in the industrial park have been running safely and reliably for decades. However, it was built long before the age of digitalisation. New ideas and concepts have therefore been developed so that these systems can make the transition into the digital world. This was particularly important as the site and its around 75 companies are highly networked. Many of these companies have to be supplied by the industrial park operator with energy sources such as electricity, compressed air, cooling water or steam or use the biological waste water treatment plant.

To maintain an overview of all these systems on one main system, increase their availability, avoid unscheduled downtimes and optimise the systems overall, the IT experts at ISW developed a proposal for an AI concept. The centrepiece of the concept is an independent IoT platform which in the future brings together and monitors all the supply and disposal systems at the industrial park. The KSB Guard smart monitoring system forms part of this concept.

Pump monitoring with KSB Guard at the Wiesbaden site

ISW supplies the industrial park 24/7 with around 22 thousand cubic metres of compressed air per hour at a gauge pressure of 5 bar. Since 2018, ISW has been using the KSB Guard monitoring system to reliably and continually keep an eye on the pumps in the compressed air systems. In addition, two KSB Etanorm pumps have also been handling the supply of cooling water at the location since 2015. They are operated redundantly, which means that if one pump fails, the supply is ensured by the second pump. 

KSB Guard, comprising a sensor unit and a cloud application, enables you to keep an eye on the status data of your pumps and other rotating equipment at all times. The functionality of KSB Guard is as simple as it is effective: A sensor unit fitted at the pump monitors its temperature and vibration values at regular intervals and sends the recorded data to the gateway via a transmission and battery unit so it can be saved in the secure KSB Cloud. The measured data and other pump information can be conveniently viewed via the KSB Guard app or the KSB Guard web portal. 

The KSB Guard data was easily integrated into the IoT platform

KSB Guard allows you to access the data measured, information and notifications via a standardised REST-API data interface. The data can be easily integrated into existing systems – e.g. a cloud or process control system – and visualised, independently of the app or web portal. When planning the new centralised IoT platform in which all data was to be brought together at the Wiesbaden site, this was precisely the solution chosen by the experts.

The data interface for monitoring the pumps that ensure the supply of compressed air was quickly set up. After just two weeks, everything had been implemented and tested. The data collected from the pumps is now continually fed into the data centre via the interface. Interpreting the data is easy thanks to the standardised interface. ISW knows at a glance whether the temperature or vibrations are okay or whether a limit value has been exceeded and whether this constitutes a warning or an alarm. The collected data is supplemented by other data on downtimes and production to provide relevant recommendations for action to maintenance staff and the system operator.

A the customer’s request, when KSB Guard was implemented it was not only the ISW production management of the site and the experts of ISW-Technik who received access to the recorded data, but also KSB. And this was with good reason: “KSB has a lot of experience with pumps. We are pleased that the pump experts are always able to take a look at our status data,” says Gerrit Hoyer, who is responsible for ISW’s data management.

Benefits of the KSB Guard data interface at a glance

• Direct access to data, information and notifications – without having to use the KSB Guard web portal or app
• Information can be integrated into the customer’s system – regardless which system is being used. 
• Information can be visualised in any other system.
• A combination with other data is possible.
• Data can be stored in any location

Downtime prevented in October 2019

Integrating KSB Guard into the IoT concept of the industrial park operator InfraServ Wiesbaden (ISW) quickly paid off. A deviation from normal operation was already reported on one of the pumps in October 2019. After KSB Guard had detected excessive vibrations and output a relevant warning, ISW was immediately informed automatically. This helped ISW technicians to identify impending bearing damage at an early stage and initiate repairs in their own workshop at a time when pump operation was not essential. If one pump had suddenly failed, a second pump would have cut in to maintain the compressed air production. Nevertheless, it was thanks to KSB Guard that a sudden system failure with unscheduled downtimes and potential resultant losses was avoided.