“We are defining the industry’s service standard for the monitoring & analytics of all types of industrial machines through our leading energy efficiency & health analytics platform for industrial assets.” - Nanoprecise

Nanoprecise solutions strive to create 360-degree integrated systems that can predict the remaining useful life of any asset and empower users with the right data across several industries. We implement cutting-edge technology to bring to our clients accurate prognostic and diagnostic solutions that can predict the remaining useful life of any asset with up to 99% accuracy.

AlCircle: Can you please introduce Nanoprecise to our readers?

Nanoprecise: Nanoprecise Sci Corp is an automated AI-based predictive maintenance solution provider that facilitates early detection of even small changes in machine operations before they impact production or cause downtime. Nanoprecise specializes in implementing Artificial Intelligence and IIoT technology for predictive asset maintenance and reducing the carbon footprint of manufacturing plants.

The integrated AI-based solution consists of a unique 6-in-1 IIoT sensor (Machine-DoctorTM) and an AI-based energy efficiency & health analytics platform (NrgmonitorTM).

MachineDoctorTM is the world’s first IIoT hardware that offers real-time insights into the health and performance of industrial assets by measuring six crucial parameters: vibration, acoustic, speed, magnetic flux, temp, and humidity. It works on Cellular networks (3G/4G/5G) using an e-sim to connect the machines to the internet. MachineDoctor is Atex and IECEx Zone 0 certified, enabling it to be used within explosive atmospheres/hazardous industrial environments, thereby bringing productivity and safety benefits to manufacturing operations.

NrgMonitorTM is an Energy Efficiency & Health Analytics Platform that helps manufacturers track their energy efficiency & carbon footprint, along with condition monitoring of their motor-driven equipment. It determines which assets are consuming higher energy and allows maintenance teams to mitigate any inefficiency in their energy consumption. Moreover, it helps those pinpoint faults with the potential to cause downtime and identifies when a given piece of equipment is approaching the end of its Remaining Useful Life. It employs a data-driven approach to help operators achieve their Net-Zero goals while preventing unplanned downtime.

We are defining the industry’s service standard for the monitoring & analytics of all types of industrial machines through our leading energy efficiency & health analytics platform for industrial assets. The solution is being deployed at scale in the field, providing a cost-effective means for companies to achieve greater sustainability and have a positive impact on reducing energy consumption & costs. The ease and speed of implementation give companies a clear means to start addressing these larger challenges today. This will significantly reduce the carbon footprint of manufacturing organizations by allowing them to move towards their emission reduction goal.

AlCircle: Industry 4.0 solutions are gradually gaining traction in the manufacturing industry. Can you please share a few use cases?

• Any manufacturing operation can be categorized into 4 types:

• Constant speed and constant load
• Constant speed and varying load
• Varying speed constant load
• Varying speed varying load

The Nanoprecise solution works with machines and equipment sets used in the abovementioned categories. The predictive maintenance framework of Nanoprecise brings the sensor data from over from the site to the corporate network to help maximize the value of information. It offers meaningful insights into the health & performance of all industrial assets. It allows maintenance teams to take faster & accurate decisions, thereby improving the overall efficiency of the operations.

It allows maintenance teams to monitor every aspect of the manufacturing operation, leading to greater productivity and reduced emissions. It also helps improve the safety of the operators and operations, with real-time data and predicting issues arising from equipment anomalies/faults. In complicated manufacturing operations, this solution can efficiently monitor the health of critical assets, thereby enabling better operational oversight.

Who in the Aluminium value chain may be a client of Nanoprecise?

The need for Industry 4.0 solutions can come from varied parts of the value chain in the Aluminium industry. Any organization having machines and equipment may leverage the analytical solutions like predictive maintenance and real time view of the equipment's health conditions. It may be a mining development organization deploying various mining equipment, or a primary aluminium company having smelters or an extrusion company. However, the use cases and the scope of solution may vary depending on the context. During the scope assessment phase the detailing is developed.

AlCircle: Can you please cite an instance where Nanoprecise solutions added significant value to an aluminium player?

Nanoprecise: We work with many of the leading players in the Aluminium manufacturing sector. Recently we helped one of the largest Aluminium manufacturing companies in Asia prevent a catastrophic failure in one of the ball mills with the help of wireless IIoT Sensors and an AI-based Analytics platform.

Ball mills are one of the critical assets in aluminium manufacturing plants. The failure of the ball mill in the grinding process will affect the output and efficiency of the entire operation. They are typically operated round the clock. Therefore, monitoring these machines is a huge challenge. Moreover, the remote location of these industrial assets leads to infrequent monitoring, and the maintenance & reliability personnel are not allowed to visit the equipment when it is running.

The wireless IIoT hardware from Nanoprecise - MachineDoctorTM detected symptoms of the improper pinion to girth gear meshing and load fluctuation in the pinion & gearbox of the ball mill.  The AI-based analytics platform from Nanoprecise observed a significant change in time waveform observed in the spectrum over seven days, indicative of the abnormalities in pinion meshing/load variations.

This early-stage fault detection helped the Aluminium manufacturer prevent 48 hours of unplanned downtime and saved $1,521,361 worth of production loss, apart from the $26,000 maintenance cost.

AlCircle: How do you see the industry 4.0 market gaining ground in the aluminium industry in the near future?

Nanoprecise: Aluminium is a versatile metal with applications in a wide variety of sectors. This makes it one of the essential metals in the world, and it has grown nearly 20x in the last sixty years. The demand for aluminium keeps increasing day by day. With the rising demand for efficiency and quality in production and manufacturing operations, unplanned downtime causes delays and customer loss for the Aluminium manufacturers, thereby hitting their bottom line. Aluminium manufacturing operators have their own set of challenges when it comes to maintaining its assets.

Companies are battling to increase production while lowering operational costs with improved worker safety. With diverse and complex equipment sets often placed in hard-to-reach, remote locations, the challenge of frequently monitoring the health & performance of machines & equipment sets is vast. Moreover, with the increased focus on reducing emissions, aluminium manufacturers worldwide are turning to digitalization, looking for cost-effective means to achieve greater sustainability and have a positive impact on reducing energy consumption & costs. Furthermore, with the advent of the digital age, the traditional levers of productivity have been exhausted, paving the way for disruptive technologies that have the potential to improve time to market and customer responsiveness significantly.

Aluminium manufacturers now realize the business potential of adopting smart manufacturing, with Industry 4.0 driving the digital transformation activities, with remote machine health monitoring, to improve asset performance and reduce their carbon footprint. Manufacturers & operators are turning to industry 4.0 technologies with an aim to move towards smart manufacturing that is highly efficient & productive. Optimizing performance with improved productivity and reduced emissions is the next step in delivering sustainable value to customers. This can only be achieved with data integration & analytics. As published by Mckinsey, a big data/advanced analytics approach can result in a 20 to 25 per cent increase in production volume and up to a 45 per cent reduction in downtime.

Industry 4.0 has already allowed aluminium manufacturers to bring the data from the shop floor to the forefront, empowering the manufacturers with the right data at the right time. It not only helps prevent unplanned downtime that results in more than $600B in supply chain disruptions but also helps reduce manufacturers' carbon footprint by identifying the assets that are consuming higher energy.

The demand for industry 4.0 solutions is only going to grow as the focus moves beyond optimizing the machine performance to encompass a wide variety of tasks such as inventory as well as quality management. Widespread adoption of such solutions aims to increase the overall efficiency & productivity on the shop floors and ensure improved worker safety.