Development trends of modern management are such that everything should be online. It is especially important to accurately understand the location of any moving objects and employees in hazardous industries. Operational decisions in emergency situations depend on this, which will minimize the consequences and save the lives and health of employees.
More than a year ago, we in SIBUR wondered how this could be implemented. The first thought is to use satellite signals GPS or GLONASS. But they do not "go" far into every room of our enterprises: for example, there are buildings with thick reinforced concrete walls. This solution obviously does not suit us. Then another option is to use beacons, which essentially replace the satellite signal and allow the device to determine its location in closed workshops.
Search for a solution
It would seem that there are many similar lighthouses on the market, you can put any, just choose. But in our production is not so simple. All equipment, including beacons, must satisfy a number of requirements.
First of all, beacons must be explosion proof. This means that equipment must not cause an explosion. We have a petrochemical production, and in the event of a leak of gas during repairs or other work, a cloud of hydrocarbons can form - an air-gas mixture that can explode from the slightest spark. Such cases in the early twentieth century were first recorded in mines. Then the standards of explosion-proof electrical equipment were formed. Now all devices that are used in areas where the emission of flammable or explosive gases is possible must be certified for explosion protection requirements.
We analyzed the market for the equipment we needed and found out that there is only one explosion-proof beacon with Bluetooth in the world. But it does not go over the temperature range for Russian conditions. That is, it is certified only up to −20 ° , and in our requirements it is specified –56 ° . This bar is set depending on the climatic minimum recorded at a given geographical point, and it was −56 ° that was on the thermometer in one of the locations where our production is located. And the lighthouses we needed with such parameters in the world at that time did not exist.
In addition, all the beacons on the market have small capacity batteries. We are not interested in running and changing batteries on thousands of beacons once a year or two. Our requirement: at least 5 years on a single battery.
Do it yourself
Then we decided: since there is no beacon, we will do it.
The key step was the preparation of the technical task, which was developed by the specialists of the IIoT team of SIBUR and in fact determined the concept of the device.
We held a competition to determine the contractor and, based on its results, began to work with the Tomsk representative office of KODE.
The first model appeared almost a year after the moment we decided that we needed our own lighthouse. Everything went pretty fast, no problem. The difficulties were precisely in ensuring explosion protection: the developers had not previously encountered such requirements. But we overcame this stage in consultation with the competent certification authorities: we learned all the requirements that must be met, and met them in the circuitry and design of the device.
Explosion protection certification in accordance with the requirements of GOST 31610.0-2012 (IEC 60079-0: 2004) was carried out in one of the accredited centers. According to the results of certification, the iBeacon radio beacon received an explosion protection mark 1Ex ia IIC T4 and a degree of protection against external influences according to GOST 14254-2015 of IP66 level. According to the results of temperature tests, the lighthouse is certified for operation in the range of -56 ° to + 55 ° .
Now everything works like this: an iBeacon format signal from the beacon, which allows you to determine the area where the employee is located, is sent to one of SIBUR's applications on the smartphone of the controlling employee. Further, the application from the smartphone sends the coordinates of the beacon to the server and thus the software understands where the object is located. That is what we needed.
A device that transmits data to a beacon may not only be a smartphone. It can be overalls, a helmet, a bracelet with a built-in module that supports Bluetooth LE. These wearable devices can also work with GPS for outdoor positioning.
And to configure the beacon parameters, a mobile application running on Android was developed together with KODE.
Lessons learned
It is imperative to carry out climate tests of the developed electronics, which are planned for use in outdoor conditions. This should be part of the acceptance tests, without which in our industry - industry in harsh conditions - nowhere. We never hope for a chance, we always test everything in laboratories and in real conditions, then we go to the plant with pilot projects.
To confirm the operability of the device, we conducted climatic tests in a heat chamber. The lighthouse has withstood the regime. On this development was completed.
The requirements for certification must not be neglected. These are not outdated dogmas, but quite updated documents. Certification very rigidly prescribes the conditions for the use of a device. For example, if the manufacturer believes that it is possible to make a device that should be used on outdoor installations with a temperature in the certificate of explosion up to −40 ° C, then he will not sell it to anyone, because this is critically small. In Russia, in almost the entire territory, the explosion protection temperature should be below 40 degrees. That is why we cannot use many European devices at home - their certificates are only up to minus 40.
Now we will watch how the devices behave in real conditions. To do this, a pilot batch was made, we will install it at one of our enterprises with severe climatic conditions, where the temperature is often below -40 ° C, and we will watch how the lighthouses work during prolonged frosts throughout the winter. When we make sure that everything is functioning well under real conditions, we will start producing large batches.
What did we get as a result? Own technological solution suitable for all SIBUR enterprises. The lighthouse has become part of our wireless infrastructure of the industrial Internet of things, which is developing in the holding. We use the technology of the Internet of things to automate various non-critical processes in production, automate data collection, and increase the level of safety in production.
And as for the batteries, we use lithium-thionyl chloride batteries, with which the beacon can last up to 10 years without replacing the batteries. Not bad, right?
This is the first SIBUR-developed device that has received an explosion protection certificate. We hope this lighthouse to open a line of IIoT equipment for industrial production.
SIBUR’s own Internet of Things platform is actively developing, and now we need Frontend developers to implement new functionality in the interface. If this topic is close to you and you have something to say, just in case (and not hinting at anything) I will leave a link to a vacancy on hh.ru