Ensuring Safety & Compliance with Remote Monitoring
T Construction Company had to demolish a local hospital in a residential area. Due to its location, regulations concerning noise and vibration levels needed to be followed during the demolition process. The company required a cost-efficient system that allowed them to constantly monitor the site, receive alert mail notifications of any abnormalities, and share data with a group of people. Moreover, because it was a demolition site with no access to a Wi-Fi network, they needed a device that did not use cabling but could make use of cellphone networking. T&D’s Wireless Data Logger RTR500B Series met all of those needs.
Installation
A system that used off-the-shelf, averaging noise and vibration meters to capture the interest data was set up. These devices acquire the raw data and then process it and output a voltage or 4-20 mA current signal that represents the value of the signal averaged over some frequency range and period. The noise meter was designed to perform measurements by IEC 61672 Class 2 guidelines. The RTR-505B-V voltage data loggers logged the analog output signal. The real-time and recorded data from the voltage loggers were collected via their built-in wireless connection by the RTR-500BM Base Unit and then automatically uploaded via the 4G cell phone network to the cloud-based T&D WebStorage Service. The RTR-500BMs were equipped with SIM cards from Kore Wireless configured with a data plan to handle the expected monthly data volume. Alarms were configured in the WebStorage service to provide immediate warning email notifications if any parameters were getting close to the mandated limits.
Usage
One noise meter, one vibration meter, and two RTR-505B-V loggers were grouped and 4 of these packages were placed at different locations at the site. Two RTR-500BM base units were placed nearby to collect the data from the voltage loggers via their wireless interface. An RTR-500BC repeater was used to provide additional range for the radio communications between a base and remote unit that exceeded the nominal 500-foot wireless communication range.
Results & Benefits
This application allowed the environmental monitoring company located over 150 miles away from the demolition site to access and constantly monitor the uploaded data on the T&D WebStorage site from their mobile devices regardless of time and place. Not having to station a person at the demolition site, while still being able to continuously monitor from a distance, was one of the biggest merits of this application. Moreover, by having alert notifications of abnormal readings sent by mail, they were able to see when and where problems were about to occur. They hence were able to take necessary steps to remedy potential trouble before becoming a full-blown issue.
Other merits included keeping the costs for cell communication to a minimum by using an MVNO for the SIM card and cell plan. With the large battery capacity of the RTR-505B-V Voltage Loggers, there was no need to worry about the power supply to the remote units during the demolition. Finally, because the RTR-500MBS uses wireless radio communication to collect data from the Remote Units and then automatically uploads the data to the cloud via 3G networking there was no need for Wi-Fi or LAN networking at the site.
For more information on the T&D RTR500B Series, or to find the ideal solution for your application-specific needs, contact a CAS DataLogger Application Specialist at (800) 956-4437 or request more information.