Rittal, the global leader for industrial enclosures, climate control, power management systems, and automation services, now offers a special adapter that retrofits comprehensive communications capabilities to ensure that you can integrate existing Blue e cooling units into condition monitoring and IoT systems.
Smart manufacturing is driven by the rise of technology; digital retrofit may be the most economical solution when a company’s equipment lacks adequate communication capabilities. When installed, the new adapter ensures the units can link up to smart condition monitoring and IoT systems.
Higher system availability
The new adapter can be used to set up condition monitoring for up to 10 cooling units in a master/slave arrangement. That means not only can data be recorded, but efficiency analyses can also be carried out on the cooling solution. A monitoring system that issues automatic notifications can also be set up to detect faults and limit breaches, thereby helping boost availability and prevent expensive machine downtime.
The new adapter is compatible with all NEMA 12, 3R/4, and 4X rated – both wall and roof-mounted – Blue e units that employ Rittal’s Comfort Controller. The NEMA 3R/4 or NEMA 4X classification, which are often used outdoors, are ideally suited for incorporation into IoT applications. Typical examples of outdoor applications for these units include renewable energy facilities such as solar and wind power plants. As these plants are usually located in isolated areas, it is essential that they incorporate remote monitoring.
Straightforward commissioning
Combining the IoT Interface with the IoT Adapter, Blue e cooling units may be integrated into higher-level systems. Rittal developed the new IoT Adapter because the older Blue e units cannot communicate directly with the IoT interface. The whole system can be configured and commissioned via the web server integrated into the IoT interface – quickly, conveniently and without the need for any programming.
“Our new Blue e adapter is the ‘easy way’ to get cooling units IoT-ready in industrial applications,” said Mike Freund, managing director for the U.S. at Rittal. “For a company to truly implement smart manufacturing, its machinery and equipment must be able to communicate over a network, our new special adapter retrofits existing cooling units to offer comprehensive communication capabilities.”