Smart Remote Maintenance | Canada

Not knowing a situation until visiting the actual site is a loss
Elevator and escalator maintenance personnel often need to rush to repair breakdowns at the customer's site. In such cases, conventional maintenance is inherently flawed as it is necessary to first visit the site to check the situation before being able to carrying out repairs when there is a failure. When a failure occurs, sometimes it is necessary to replace parts. However, maintenance personnel do not necessarily have the appropriate replacement parts on hand. For that reason, maintenance personnel usually investigate the cause at the actual site and return back to their company after determining the most appropriate countermeasure. They then prepare the necessary parts and tools before heading back to the site a second time to carry out the work. Not only was this extra travel a burden for the maintenance personnel, but it also lead to customer dissatisfaction due to extended downtime.

PLC remote monitoring allows advanced preparation

In order to improve maintenance work efficiency and enhance customer satisfaction, it is important to create a mechanism so that maintenance personnel can obtain information in advance. At IDEC, we are working to add IoT technology to PLCs to allow engineers to make preparations before traveling to the site. Our FC6A programmable controller is a model with an integrated PLC and HMI module. After connecting it to the internet, it is possible to check the system status through a web browser on a device such as a smartphone or a tablet PC.

Also, error codes can be sent by email when an error is triggered. Not only can the cause of failure can be checked in advance but this function also enables predictive maintenance before periodic inspections. Maintenance personnel can prepare the necessary parts in advance, and smoothly carry out maintenance work. Furthermore, this allows elevator designers to easily carry out remote monitoring simply by adding monitoring and networking components to existing elevators and escalators.
 

Contact IDEC if you have any concerns regarding efficiency improvement and safety measures.
In addition to the FC6A programmable controller, we also have a number of products to help visualization of the work site. We have a comprehensive lineup of control equipment such as the SA1E compact photoelectric switch with built-in amplifier for detecting humans, and DPRI series proximity switches for detecting the presence and location of objects such as cars, doors, and steps. Please contact IDEC if you have any questions regarding the visualization and remote monitoring of elevators and escalators.