A NEW wireless monitoring system is being employed in a broad range of industrial processes following a collaboration between Booth Welsh, an Ayrshire-based engineering services company, and Glasgow Caledonian University.
The system cost £80,000 to develop and replaces cable-based monitoring sensors with wireless technology. It is said to remove the cost and the challenge involved in laying extensive cabling, with the wireless system also able to transmit more information.
The innovation is the result of a two-year research and development project under the Knowledge Transfer Partnerships banner, led by the Technology Strategy Board.
It stemmed from the Ayrshire firm's connection to Paul McKenna, a lecturer in control systems at Caledonian University, and was co-funded by Booth Welsh, Research Councils and the Scottish Government.
Martin Welsh, MD of Booth Welsh, said: "What the technology does is allow end users to install quicker, and with less cost, the technology to give them the same monitoring device they would have had previously, and actually to get even more information back over a wireless network than they would from a cabled network."
Booth Welsh said the innovation can be applied in a range of sectors, from whisky and food and beverage production to nuclear and petrochemical.
It is being used in the oil and gas industry monitor to variables like pressure and temperature, with the company working with EDF Energy on a solution for it to be applied to vessel inspections, removing the need for inspectors to be attached by an "umbilical chord" as they carry out their work.
Gavin Florence, systems and technology director, said: "The next big challenge is allowing it to control pumps and valves and start and stop equipment. Security then has to be stepped up as someone could intercept that and start and stop devices."
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