Deutsche Telekom’s IoT project for CERTUSS honored with 2016 Aecus Innovation Award

Sensor data are visualized in realtime

• Deutsche Telekom honored for its support for predictive maintenance at CERTUSS
• Intelligent networking of steam generators, in the Internet of Things
• CERTUSS enhances its customer focus, via real-time services

BONN, 12-Sep-2016 — /EuropaWire/ — Deutsche Telekom has been honored with the 2016 Aecus Innovation Award, in the category “Big Data / Data Analytics,” for an IoT project for CERTUSS, a maker of steam generators. Each year, Aecus, a British sourcing consultancy, gives out awards for innovative projects that ICT services providers carry out in cooperation with their customers. CERTUSS, the market leader in Germany, is now using a “Cloud of Things” solution from Deutsche Telekom to connect and monitor its steam generators in place with customers and to optimize its maintenance service. Fast-working, efficient steam generators from CERTUSS are used throughout a broad and diverse range of industrial and commercial operations, including hospital laundry services, food manufacturing (examples: scalding of sausages; production of ready-made meals and canned goods), cleaning of transport tanks and containers, steam humidification of production facilities and winemaking.

“This gratifying innovation award is yet more evidence proving that digitization is really getting underway in the business world,” notes Anette Bronder, Managing Director of T-Systems‘ Digital Division and responsible for the Internet of Things (IoT) in the Deutsche Telekom Group. The Internet of Things (IoT) offers enhanced new business models for nearly all commercial and industry sectors, including real-time services with an entirely new dimension of customer focus. “To get a feeling for how your company could profit from digitization, start with small-scale IoT solutions, and gain experience with them. And do not hesitate to get some assistance for the process, just as CERTUSS turned to us for support,” is Bronder’s advice for those seeking to take their first steps into the new digital technologies.

Looking for tiny clues, with big data
Steam generators from CERTUSS, a Krefeld-based SME with a proud history, are now in service around the world, in a total of 90 different sectors. Under the old system, CERTUSS representatives had to travel widely, at regular intervals, to service systems on location. That of course generated considerable costs. Now, CERTUSS has moved to predictive maintenance. It equips its generators with sensors and ties them into the “Cloud of Things,” Deutsche Telekom’s solution for monitoring connected devices in Industry 4.0 environments. A special mobile gateway gathers systems’ sensor data and forwards them, via Deutsche Telekom’s mobile network, into the cloud. There, they are visualized in a web portal.

“Our steam generators’ smart connections, via Deutsche Telekom’s IoT solution, give us a world of options for data analysis. For example, we’re constantly looking for, and analyzing, clues and indications that enable us to carry out optimal predictive maintenance,” explains Thomas Hamacher, Chief Technical Officer at CERTUSS. This way, the service crews no longer have to make service calls at regular defined intervals. They go to customers only when maintenance is truly required. “With our new predictive maintenance, we save time and money, provide higher guaranteed system availabilities and thus, by significantly reducing our systems’ down time, enhance our systems’ productivity,” Hamacher adds.

Sensors detect abnormalities
The sensors integrated within CERTUSS steam generators measure more than 60 different parameters, including steam pressure, water levels, temperature and combustion conditions. A big data solution in the Deutsche Telekom cloud analyzes the data and reports any system abnormalities and disruptions. And if a steam generator exceeds defined threshold values, or if a unit fails, the IoT system immediately sends an alarm, thereby enabling CERTUSS to respond right away. In many cases, the company can handle the problem remotely, without having to send out a service technician. The data also provide a range of other useful information, such as the times at which customers require the most steam, the temperatures at which systems operate most efficiently and the times at which systems can safely operate in minimal mode. With the help of such information, CERTUSS can optimally adjust systems to customers’ specific requirements.

For the interview with Thomas Hamacher, CTO at CERTUSS, please click here.

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SOURCE: Deutsche Telekom AG