Fluke Reliability solution delivers Batteryless Machine Condition Monitoring
Fluke Reliability, a world leader in machine condition monitoring devices and cloud-based maintenance software, has partnered with Everactive, a technology company that sells category-defining, batteryless Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, to develop next generation wireless vibration sensors.
The first result of this collaboration, the batteryless Fluke 3562 Screening Vibration Sensor system, launched this summer. It’s a “set it and forget it” wireless vibration sensor that operates continuously, even in hard-to-reach places.
The Fluke 3562 Screening Vibration Sensor is powered by Everactive® Edge technology, which leverages proprietary circuits that can draw all required energy from a machine’s heat or the light in the room using thermoelectric or photovoltaic energy harvesters. The technologically advanced vibration sensor screens overall vibration levels, temperature, and humidity, as well as trends the highest FFT peaks by magnitude.
“Powering vibration sensors to monitor machine health has always been a challenge that leads to compromises,” said Fluke Reliability President Ankush Malhotra. “By teaming with Everactive, we’ve developed an always-on solution that delivers continuous monitoring to a broader number of machines, enabling widespread coverage across plants.”
The new collaboration came after Fluke led a $35M Series C financing round earlier this year to help accelerate Everactive’s commercial growth.
“The partnership with Fluke represents a tremendous leap forward for industrial internet solutions,” said Everactive CEO, Bob Nunn. “Marrying Everactive’s expertise in self-powered scalable sensors and Fluke’s deep domain expertise can bring valuable products to market that drive quantifiable savings and efficiencies for customers.”
Using ‘harvested energy’ to power sensor systems
Spun out of the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia in 2012, Everactive develops self-powered IoT systems. Everactive’s harvesters leverage its proprietary ultra-low-power semiconductors, which require 1,000 times less power than competing circuits. With this technology, the Fluke 3562 system can generate enough power from small amounts of “harvested energy” to continuously measure, process, and wirelessly transmit equipment and infrastructure health data from a range of industrial assets.
Removing the battery from the equation enables new types of pervasive condition monitoring while cost-effectively digitizing thousands of physical assets across a plant to maximize uptime, optimize maintenance costs, and improve environmental, health, and safety.
Cutting-edge technology combined with software and services
The revolutionary system also features Everactive’s ultra-penetrating sub-GHz radio communication protocol that allows up to 1,000 Fluke 3562 vibration sensors to communicate with a single gateway up to 800 feet away. When combined with the cloud-based LIVE-Asset™ Portal software, it lets users visualize trend data and trigger alert notifications using custom-set parameters.
The system also operates on the same software platform used by the new Fluke 3563 Analysis Vibration Sensor, meaning users can now monitor the health of critical, semi-critical, and important machines via a single dashboard.
The Fluke 3562 Screening Vibration Sensor system is currently available in US and Canada, with plans to expand to other countries in the coming months.
