Top tools and technologies for improving operational efficiencies

Fluke selects the top three trends enhancing operational efficiency in today's industrial environments.

The rising energy cost has now overshadowed the pandemic's challenges posed to industrial operations managers and the necessity to deliver on net zero ambitions. As energy prices continue to increase, the need to reduce costs and deliver on shared sustainability goals intensifies for small-to-medium-sized enterprises through to large corporations.

Paul Feenstra, vice president Fluke EMEA, at Fluke said: "We are working together with our customers to help drive new initiatives to improve operations, increase efficiencies, and take reliability to a new level in the 21st century."

The Fluke ii900 Industrial Acoustic Imager provides an array of microphones, visualising sound field within an expanded field-of-view and at a distance of up to 70m, enabling maintenance teams to visually locate air leaks quickly and accurately in compressed air systems.

Beyond the advancement of rugged handheld tools, monitoring practices are also developing with internet-connected instruments. Analysis and data is captured on a cloud platform enabling operators to monitor the KPI of compressed air systems, comprising energy, electric power, flow, pressure and leakage flow. Fluke's LeakQ Report Generator produces detailed air compressor leak reports from images captured by the ii900 or ii910 Precision Acoustic Imager and calculates the energy savings once the leaks are repaired.

The accelerated uptake in digital measurement solutions for industrial applications can save time and money, aiding a shift towards predictive maintenance for systems. Although modern measurement digital devices are generally not fit-and-forget solutions, the growth in digital measurement solutions paves the way for verification technologies that can assist in reducing the maintenance burden on personnel without compromising on accuracy or reliability.

"The tests we have faced within the last 24-36 months is delivering a growing awareness among top management that fundamental changes in maintenance best practice need to occur in order to protect the bottom line," said Paul Feenstra.

"This is music to the ears of progressive industrial managers who have been advocating for investments to improve efficiencies and reliability of systems. Now is the time to make the case to adopt innovative technologies, tools, and processes to ensure your company maintains a competitive edge and thrives in this new environment."