by Mike Aanenson, on February 12, 2025
Many of Exosite's machine manufacturer and service organization customers are leveraging the HMS Ewon Flexy products for both a gateway to Exosite's IIoT Platform and remote access to machines. The Ewon Flexy remote gateways support a wide array of industrial protocols (Modbus, BACNet/IP, etc) , OPC UA and is compatible with PLCs from Rockwell Automation/Allen Bradley, Siemens, Schneider Electric, Mitsubishi Electric, Vipa, Omron, and Hitachi.
Thanks to its extensive protocol support and PLC compatibility, the Ewon Flexy gateways provide machine builders with a versatile tool for monitoring and gathering data, which can be transmitted to Exosite's Murano IoT Platform for integration with the ExoSense Condition Monitoring solution.
Exosite's IIoT platform allows machine manufacturers to deploy a white-label connected product solution and service to their customers, which can include:
- Insight and data access for machine health and performance
- Predictive Maintenance and Enhanced Service
- Equipment / Run Time as a Service
- Core functionality for remote monitoring and software updates
Examples
Air Quality Handler for Welding Shops
A major manufacturer of air handling products is able to leverage data already available in the equipment by incorporating an Ewon Flexy device to acquire data tags from the PLC with their own custom-branded ExoSense solution. This integration allows them to tap into a wealth of information that was previously underutilized, transforming raw data into actionable insights. By doing so, they can provide their customers with real-time and trend performance data, which allows for informed decisions to improve operation, lower maintenance, and improve air quality which is the #1 goal.
Overall, this ensures shops are maintaining a comfortable and safe working environment and providing a touch point for the manufacturer to continue to connect with their customers and the potential for additional service revenue.
Freeze Drying Machines
The freeze drying process stages and operating health of large industrial freeze drying machines are now monitored using Ewon Flexys connected to Exosite's Murano IIoT platform. This connection facilitates the continuous collection and transmission of critical data, providing a comprehensive overview of each stage in the freeze drying process.
By leveraging this rich dataset, operators can conduct analysis of the various drying steps involved, identifying potential bottlenecks or inefficiencies. This not only aids in optimizing the overall process but also highlights areas where efficiency gains can be achieved, ultimately leading to improved performance and reduced operational costs. Through this enhanced monitoring and data analysis, businesses can ensure that their freeze drying operations are running at peak efficiency, maximizing productivity and maintaining high-quality output.
OT Equipment Transformation
The integration of Industrial IoT (IIoT) with Operational Technology (OT) is enabling equipment manufacturers to develop new business models, fostering innovation and enhancing competitiveness in the industrial sector. As customers increasingly adopt digital transformation concepts and demand higher machine performance, strategically implementing IIoT with machinery is becoming essential for future equipment sales and additional areas of revenue growth.
Getting Started
The HMS Ewon Flexy allows an easy and seamless way to connect PLCs and fieldbus connected equipment to Exosite's Industrial IoT platform. For those who work with PLCs, a quick overview on getting started:
- Tags are setup in the Flexy for different pieces of machine data on the PLC, leveraging all of the protocols supported. This connection to your PLCs is easy with the Ewon tools.
- Exosite offers the data connector software that communicates to Exosite's platform from the Flexy. This is quick to install.
- Tags on the Flexy gateway are converted to channel message payloads for use in the ExoSense solution.
- These channels are then mapped to digital twin asset signals for dashboards, rules, and analysis within ExoSense.
- Product manufacturers can then choose to provide access to end users or to keep the data in house for providing insight and maintenance services.
Our support team can quickly help you get your Flexy set up for Exosite. Want to learn more about using ExoSense, check out our documentation.
Are you a machine manufacturer that is looking roll out a connected solution? We'd love to connect and talk about your project.
The Ewon Flexy is a product of HMS. https://www.hms-networks.com/remote-gateways