Monitoil® system is a tool for real-time monitoring of the chemical-physical and contamination characteristics of lubricating oils, which Mecoil Diagnosi Meccaniche designed to meet the growing demand for assistance and predictive maintenance in critical environments. The system can in fact be installed directly on board the machine to be monitored, and send data acquired by its sensors to an online platform, allowing the user to keep the operating conditions of the machine under control, generating alarms in case the preset limits are exceeded.
Mecoil asked Florence Engineering to industrialize the Monitoil system, designing a solution suitable for mass production, and to take care of the entire product certification activity based on current regulations.
Florence Engineering optimized the layout of the hydraulic circuit (sensors and related interconnections), the fixing of the various mechanical parts of the system, the electronics for power supply and wiring of the sensors. The difficulty in this phase was to fit all the components in a container of predefined dimensions, creating a solution easy to assemble and maintain, and at the same time aesthetically pleasing and functional.
In this design, components capable of operating in an extended temperature range were chosen, because the oil under investigation can also be very hot and therefore overheat the sensors and the operating environment.
For the certification support activity, on the basis of the possible operating conditions, Florence Engineering selected the applicable directives and the reference standards, and then verified that all the components of the system comply with the same, identifying when necessary equivalent alternatives compatible with regulatory requirements.
At the end of the design activity, Florence Engineering then created the prototype of the re-engineered system, commissioning the various designed parts from its supply chain, and directly carrying out the final assembly and testing. All the technical documentation, including suppliers for all the components, was then provided to Mecoil to start production.