by Gary Mintchell | Dec 19, 2014 | Automation, Commentary, Internet of Things, News, Operations Management, Technology, Wireless
Just like there is a difference between industrial and consumer Internet of Things, there is a difference between connected wearable devices for industrial and consumer use.
Honeywell Process has shown the media examples of various geo-location wearable devices for several years to assist responders during an incident. Personnel have been wearing a variety of communication devices for years.
Consumer applications will, of course, continue to capture the most interest. People involved in manufacturing do tend to take these consumer ideas and often turn them into useful applications for manufacturing.
According to a new report from the research firm Berg Insight, shipments of connected wearables reached 19.0 million in 2014, up from 5.9 million devices in the previous year. Growing at a compound annual growth rate of 54.7 percent, total shipments of smartwatches, smart glasses, fitness & activity trackers, people monitoring & safety devices and medical devices as well as other wearable devices are forecasted to reach 168.2 million units in 2019. Bluetooth will remain the primary connectivity option in the coming years, but nonetheless, a total of 16.6 million of the wearables shipments in 2019 are forecasted to incorporate embedded cellular connectivity, mainly in the smartwatch and people monitoring & safety categories.
Fitness & activity trackers is the largest device category and shipments reached 13.0 million units in 2014. The market leading vendors Fitbit, Jawbone and Garmin have in the past year been joined by an abundance of companies including major players from the smartphone industry such as LG, Huawei, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony and Xiaomi which have released fitness & activity trackers. “This product category is now facing fierce competition from smartwatches that have activity tracking features. Decreasing prices and new form factors will still enable dedicated fitness & activity trackers to reach shipments of 42.0 million units in 2019,” said Johan Svanberg, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight.
A new breed of smartwatches became available in 2014 when high profile Android Wear smartwatches from Sony, LG, Motorola and Asus entered the market to compete with existing offerings from Pebble and Samsung. “Smartwatches are already the second largest category of connected wearables and sales will pick up considerably in 2015. The Apple Watch will enter the market and other major smartphone vendors will launch next generation Android Wear devices”, comments Mr. Svanberg. Traditional watch vendors will also enter the market in the coming years, both with smartwatches capable of running third party applications as well as traditionally styled watches with basic smartphone notification features. Improved devices available in different price segments will drive adoption in the next five years and smartwatches is predicted to become the largest device category by the end of the forecast period.
Shipments of smart glasses have so far been very modest, but promising use cases in specific markets such as enterprise and medical as well as in niche segments of the consumer market will enable smart glasses to become the third largest category of connected wearables in the next five years.
“The opportunities are plentiful – improved imaging capability together with hands-free operation, real-time communication and augmented reality functionality would for example make smart glasses a serious contender on the action camera market”, said Mr. Svanberg.
Connected wearables such as cardiac rhythm management devices, ECG monitors, mobile Personal Emergency Response Systems (mPERS) and wearable computers are already common in the medical, people monitoring and enterprise segments.
Furthermore, miniaturised electronics, low power wireless connectivity and cloud services have inspired a wide range of new connected wearables such as authentication and gestures wristbands, notification rings, smart motorcycle helmets and smart gloves. “Most of these products are still experimental, but in a few years’ time there will be many examples of new successful devices on the market”, concluded Mr. Svanberg.
Download report brochure: Connected Wearables
Berg Insight is a dedicated M2M/IoT market research firm based in Sweden. It has been specializing in all major M2M/IoT verticals such as fleet management, car telematics, smart metering, smart homes, mHealth and industrial M2M since 2004.
by Gary Mintchell | Dec 12, 2014 | Events, News, Operations Management
We’ve probably all witnessed the declining prices at the gasoline pump. If we’re investors heavily invested in oil stocks, we may be feeling a reverse emotion. Depends. There is no doubt that the current shale gas/shale oil boom in the US has a significant impact on the economy and our financial health. Here’s a report revealing the impact on manufacturing.
PwC US increased its forecast on cost savings and long term employment gains in U.S. manufacturing as a result of the surge in shale gas production on Dec. 11. The new estimates are part of PwC’s updated analysis on the significant contributions shale gas is making in revitalizing the U.S. manufacturing landscape.
According to PwC’s new report titled, Shale Gas: Still a boon to US manufacturing?, PwC estimates that the continued “shale effect” on U.S. manufacturing could bring an annual cost savings of $22.3 billion by 2030, assuming a high natural gas recovery and low price scenario. In terms of job creation, PwC estimates that continued shale gas activity will create 930,000 shale gas driven manufacturing jobs by 2030 and 1.41 million by 2040. These estimates are comparable to the analysis done in PwC’s 2011 study, which showed an annual cost savings of $11.6 billion and approximately one million jobs by 2025.
“There’s no doubt that the shale gas boom in the U.S. helped trigger a resurgence in manufacturing,” said Robert McCutcheon, U.S. industrial products leader, PwC. “Reducing costs, creating jobs and supporting investments and innovations are among the many impacts this game-changing resource has brought to the U.S. manufacturing space. Assuming shale continues to serve as a catalyst for the manufacturing sector, we revised our cost savings and longer term employment estimates significantly upward, and could see those numbers go even higher as more businesses and global interests look to exploit shale opportunities.”
Among the industries continuing to benefit are energy intensive manufacturing sectors such as metals, chemicals and petrochemicals, which all use natural gas as feedstock. According to the report, growing prospects for building pipelines for the infrastructure that’s needed to support natural gas demands in the U.S. could also bring additional benefits to U.S. manufacturers who support those build-outs.
The survey also uncovered a continued rise in the number of companies commenting to the investment community on how shale gas activity affects their business. In 2013, 40 U.S. manufacturing companies included shale gas impacts in their public filings, up from 29 in 2011. “More companies are publicly disclosing a link between natural gas production as a material advantage for their business and a source for growth in demand for their products,” noted McCutcheon.
PwC’s report also identified developments that could potentially impact the benefits of shale gas development to U.S. manufacturers. These include environmental issues, supply exceeding demand, insufficient natural gas refueling infrastructure, and changes in tax policy that could affect capital investments.
by Gary Mintchell | Nov 15, 2014 | Automation, Safety
I don’t do a lot of products yet at this site, but I’m old enough to remember the times before lockout/tagout. And old enough to remember many injuries and almost deaths at places where I worked. I really like all the cool ideas that have evolved over the past 20 years.
Here is one from Eaton, a company well known for power management. Employees at the company’s Shenandoah, Iowa, commercial vehicle transmission plant have invented a new electrical lockout device that minimizes electrical safety risks during machine maintenance and significantly improves efficiency of the lockout procedure.
Eaton’s Vehicle Group is in the process of installing the newly developed Bus Plug Lockout at more than 40 manufacturing facilities worldwide. Maintenance technicians and tool designers at the Shenandoah facility collaborated to invent the device on which a patent application is pending in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
The new device allows workers to safely disable power to plant equipment at an electrical bus bar – typically located 13 feet off the ground – without having to use an aerial lift. In addition to eliminating exposure to arc flashes and working at heights, using the Bus Plug Lockout device reduces the former 11-step process to just three steps, saving more than an hour of time.
“The new safety device embraces Eaton’s Zero Incident culture and shows the ingenuity of our employees in Shenandoah,” said Jorge Zedillo, Shenandoah plant manager.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration requires workers to lock out power to manufacturing equipment prior to servicing or maintenance. Such lockouts typically are done directly at the machine on the ground.
Define Lockout
Locking out at the bus bar completely disables power to the corresponding plant equipment, which eliminates potential exposure to electrical arc flashes when a technician opens the machine for maintenance. In the past, workers needed an aerial lift to access the bus bar. To use the lift they had to be properly trained and were required to follow strict time-consuming procedures.
Eaton developed the Bus Plug Lockout tool by modifying an existing hot stick – an insulated pole used to protect workers from electrical shock when testing voltage or performing maintenance. The non-conductive frame and fiberglass linkage for the Bus Plug Lockout can be easily attached and removed to a hot stick as needed, allowing workers to reach up and turn power off at the bus bar.
The new lockout device can handle up to 100 amps, which is the limit for 90 percent of the more than 850 bus bars at Eaton’s Shenandoah plant. The facility currently has three Bus Plug Lockout units, including one with a short handle for easier use on lower bus bars. Shenandoah workers have quickly adopted the use of the devices, saving the facility both time and money.
“But the real benefit is eliminating the need to work at heights during the lockout procedure,” said Jason Hawpe, environmental, health and safety manager for the Shenandoah plant. “You can’t fall out of an aerial lift or off a ladder if your feet are firmly planted on the ground.”
The Bus Plug Lockout design can be adapted for any 100-amp unit and could potentially be used by any manufacturing company to safely and efficiently lock out bus bars.
by Gary Mintchell | Jul 15, 2014 | Automation, Safety
My friend Kenna Amos is a Chem E, PE, has been a magazine editor and editor-in-chief. He has written columns for me in a couple of tours of duty.
He recently wrote a series on process industry safety. Here is a guest post with one of those reports.
Chemical Safety Board Blames Deficiencies for Tesoro Refinery Deaths
Catastrophe blasted Tesoro Refining and Marketing Company LLC’s (Tesoro’s) refinery in Anacortes, Wash., on April 2, 2010. Seven workers died—and the refinery would be closed for six months. Unfortunately, maintenance, design, operations, regulatory agencies, industrial guidance and company safety culture all had roles in the incident.
The accident occurred in the Catalytic Reformer/Naphtha Hydrotreater unit. In it, two parallel banks of shell-and-tube heat exchangers operate. On the day of the disaster, workers were returning A/B/C bank into service, while leaving D/E/F bank in operation.
At 12:35 a.m., carbon-steel exchanger E, in the middle of its vertical stack, ruptured. Instantly, hydrogen and naphtha at 630-710 degrees Fahrenheit and about 600 pounds per square inch, gauge, burst out and auto-ignited. The resulting explosion’s fireball engulfed the heat exchangers. It and the ensuing fire, which burned for three hours, killed the workers.
The state Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) concluded the tragedy was completely preventable. So did the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) in its May 1, 2014, report—“INVESTIGATION REPORT: Catastrophic Rupture of Heat Exchanger (Seven Fatalities) – Tesoro Anacortes Refinery; Anacortes, Washington; April 2, 2010.”
High-temperature hydrogen attack (HTHA) caused the vessel to rupture along high-stress, non-post-weld-heat-treated regions of the inside walls of exchanger E. In HTTA, CSB says, atomic hydrogen diffuses into steel, reacts with carbon and produces methane. Because those molecules are too large to diffuse through the metal, they accumulate and exert pressure against exchanger walls.
That process fissures or blisters the steel. “As more fissures form, they can link, forming microcracks. Microcracks can also link to form larger cracks, which greatly weaken the steel and can lead to rupture of the vessel,” says the CSB report. “This process occurred in the E heat exchanger.”
But it needn’t have. Had Tesoro measured or otherwise technically evaluated the heat exchanger’s actual operating condition, existing refinery procedures would’ve required an HTHA inspection, CSB reports. “[Also] no evaluation was documented to demonstrate effectiveness of the inspection safeguards claimed by the [process hazard analysis] PHA team.” If an evaluation had occurred, investigators would’ve found Tesoro didn’t implement safeguards.
Nor did the refiner pursue safer design. None of the Tesoro PHA teams ever considered applying the principles of inherently safer design, by upgrading the heat exchangers before the incident, CSB declares.
Substandard State, Federal Oversight
Even so, for failing to evaluate/implement inherently safer design—or failing to implement HTHA inspection as a safeguard, state and federal regulators never issued citations to Tesoro, reveals CSB. But regulators couldn’t have, as the board discovered, because they have no process safety management (PSM) requirement to scrutinize inherently safer design or evaluate safeguards’ effectiveness.
No U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirement is puzzling. “Despite its acknowledged authority to do so, to date the EPA has not required industries to implement IST [inherently safer technology] through either the creation of a new rule, or the enforcement of the Clean Air Act [Amendments of 1990] General Duty Clause,” CSB states.
But would an existing state requirement have been effective? Circumstance suggests not. CSB notes for 270 PSM facilities, DOSH employs only four process-safety specialists. Only one has significant refinery experience. Only one is an engineer. And none have metallurgical experience.
The state would’ve found deficient maintenance and design programs—and problematic safety culture. Instead of incorporating design elements to eliminate HTHA risk, Tesoro used the mechanical-integrity program to identify damage mechanisms, CSB says. Also, for years, technical experts evaluated HTHA susceptibility using design parameters. But in concluding no heat-exchanger vulnerability, experts weren’t required to prove safety effectiveness.
The Chemical Safety Board also finds an inadequate American Petroleum Institute (API) standard. “API RP [Recommended Practice] 941 – ‘Steels for Hydrogen Service at Elevated Temperatures and Pressures in Petroleum Refineries and Petrochemical Plants’ is written permissively—and there are no minimum requirements for refiners to take any action to prevent HTHA failure,” CSB says. “We will consider CSB’s recommendations as part of the work already underway to prepare the next editions of refinery safety standards,” API spokesman Carlton Carroll says.
Because of a long history of frequent leaks and occasional fires when putting the six heat exchangers back into service, CSB acknowledges that startup, shutdown, and cleaning activities were a hazardous nonroutine operation.
C. Kenna Amos can be reached at [email protected].
