News

Newsletter | H1/2020

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  • 6 min

NEW INSTALLATIONS

 

Smart City

During March, we completed the installation of the Flowbox SCG5000 product package on the premises of GA Energo in Pilsen, which is also a “Smart City Polygon” presentation environment for solutions in the smart city vertical segment. It is possible to visit the Polygon and see how a city or municipality can use modern technologies for efficient management of their buildings and technologies including energy, security, public lighting, etc. smartcitypolygon.cz

Manufacturing

For the company VALENTA ZT we completed the Flowbox MAN5000 product package installation of the system in their new production hall and administrative building in Všetaty. Here, Flowbox controls heating, ventilation, recuperation, air conditioning, oil cooling, compressor cooling, lighting and energy consumption. It also monitors the trouble-free operation of the backup Diesel unit, UPS and backup batteries. They help to cover the unstable energy supply from the distributor’s network that is needed for production, especially at a time when it is not possible to shut down robotic and automated production technologies.

SOFTWARE NEWS

To date, the most current SW version is 3.12.7. You can find a detailed list of changes on docs (Technical – Changelog), here we select the most interesting news for you:

HACCP

Flowbox now supports the measurement, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, the so-called HACCP process is a core functionality of RAF1000, RAF3000, HEA1000, HEA3000 packages, which is key for monitoring food production, storage, and handling. However, it is similarly possible to use measurement and analysis in other sectors such as medicine or research labs, where it is necessary to monitor the storage and handling of pharmaceutics, vaccines or biological samples.

In the event of unwanted development, anomalous conditions are sent to the operator via SMS, e-mail or the Pushover application, and all undesirable conditions, their solutions and remedies, including the time of resolution, are recorded in so-called incident reports. This makes it easy to trace any development, incident, and reaction of the operator.

Daily maximum Dmax regulator

As with the technical maximum and the control of the 1/4-hour reserved power input, the new Flowbox DMax component of all 3000 and 5000 series packages offers increased control over the daily maximum gas and heating consumption.

The component uses a real-time learning algorithm based on the so-called ‘training period’, on which the daily consumption curve is modelled. The learning algorithm dynamically adapts to changes in operations according to current conditions.

In plants, the most massive amount of consumption takes place in the morning up until noon and the decline comes in the late afternoon or evening. According to the created / learned daily model, Flowbox predicts the course of consumption during the day. According to this prediction and the actual development, the attenuation of selected appliances is then controlled, and thus the efficiency of energy consumption is maximized. Higher efficiency leads to savings in costs associated with the reservation of the daily maximum, or. with penalty payments for an overdraft of the daily reserved capacity.

 

FEATURES SPOTLIGHT

 

Measurements of utilization of production machines as a means for evaluating production productivity

  • Important types of innovations in industrial enterprises include changes in production systems based on the process concept, especially on the method of systematic reduction of process losses
  • From the point of view of production and the growth of its technical and economic efficiency, a reflection on productivity is especially needed
  • Productivity is the efficiency (effectiveness) with which production factors are used in production
  • For the correct evaluation of indicators of productivity and effectiveness of production, it is necessary to measure and analyze the entire production process, including the so-called utilization of production machines or the methods of measuring and analyzing the use of machinery in delivering the necessary product
  • Flowbox can measure this production effectiveness and machine utilization in the production process in real time, visualize and provide analytical overviews for subsequent optimization, if necessary
  • Last but not least, Flowbox offers the definition of key indicators for monitoring productivity through KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and in the notification of unexpected developments or a decline or fluctuation in production
  • You can also use Flowbox for economic evaluation and the comparison of individual contracts

 

Automated reports from graphs

Do you have a graph created in Flowbox that you would like to send to your e-mail on a regular basis? This is made possible by the component called ‘Report from graphs. Here you choose which graphs are to be sent, to whom they are to be sent, the frequency of sending, and the format for which you want it to be sent in. The user thus gets a regular view of the required data without having to log in to the system.

 

Other significant new features

  • Global tariffs – it is now possible to set global tariffs (unit prices) for measuring energy consumption. For example, if you have more than one electricity meter and you want to change the price per kWh, now you only need to change it in one place – in ‘System settings’ / ‘Consumption tariffs
  • The Sankey diagram, pie chart, and carpet plot now allow for a choice of curve colors. At the same time, it is possible to display this graph directly on the overview panel
  • T-Mobile Netherlands NB-IoT support
  • Adding of global system configuration and e-mail server configuration to Flowbox settings. You can set up the e-mail server, SMS or pushover in ‘System settings’ / ‘Messaging configuration’
  • • We have simplified the setting of floor plans and watchdogs. The configuration is now more straightforward and understandable
  • Support for Dixell freezers via IP interface (Dixell XWEB). Automatic reading of data from multiple freezers via the Dixell system

 

HARDWARE NEWS

We present a new Flowbox WiFi Node FBX500, in DIN or lite versions, which contains 4 universal inputs to which up to 4 energy consumption meters, 2 temperature meters via 1wire bus, or analogue meters of humidity, pressure or other physical quantities can be connected; it also makes it possible to measure the operation (running) of appliances using current through-type transformers.

The module has 2 DO outputs, which can be used to control e.g., radiator heads.
The advantage of the module is the low purchase price and the possibility of using a local wireless WiFi transmission network, as well as sending data directly to the Flowbox Cloud Server FBX6000, i.e., it is not necessary to install the local Flowbox Alliance Gateway.
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Fronius

We have integrated inverters and dataloggers from FRONIUS for monitoring the production and accumulation of electricity from PPPs in order to control output appliances according to the knowledge of available sources – a combination of energy from GRID / PPPs / Battery storage or other available sources.
This is the next step for the use of the Flowbox system in local distribution systems, which are becoming an increasingly interesting element of the power industry of the future.

 

INELS

As part of our close cooperation with ELKO EP, we offer support for INELS BUS (CU3), INELS RF (eLAN) and INELS Air (IoT) HW elements that can be used in Flowbox. More information about HW products from ELKO EP can be found at  https://www.inels.cz/

 

Other new components

 

NEWS IN DOCUMENTATION

You can now log in to our documentation portal  docs.flowbox.cz, , which we are constantly expanding and supplementing with new components and examples of various configurations or solutions, via the mobile application.

Just install the ‘Confluence’ app on your phone (iOS and Android): If you need help with installation, for example, you can easily find instructions on your mobile phone.

We have recently added a section (Spaces) Partners – Marketing, where presentations, case studies and a catalogue of Flowbox functionalities are available for download.

We also improved case studies of completed projects in industry (Baumruk & Baumruk machinery production), schools / buildings (Zruč nad Sázavou), and in the residential sector (Corso Pod Lipami). The materials are available in both Czech and English.

We have recently added instructions for: