Peter Otto, Postberg

„With our engineering designs, we have specialised in compressed air, the most expensive energy source. We offer our customers an all-round service for the energy-efficient use of compressed air in industry. This ranges from efficiency consulting to customised product developments of measurement and sensor technology to professional support. In this way, we are already enabling operating cost reductions of up to 60% in compressed air production. However, up to 30% of the expensively provided compressed air still escapes through leaks in the lines.

We are continuously working on developing new solutions. Through cooperation with SONOTEC, the idea arose to combine their mobile systems for leakage detection, which they developed with IMMS, with our measurement technology. Our systems are stationarily installed in large supply facilities with widely branched pipe systems and measure the consumption and flow of compressed air, nitrogen, oxygen, helium and CO2. We have combined our know-how and jointly developed a holistic monitoring system for compressed air systems. It consists of wirelessly networked and permanently installed ultrasonic sensors from SONOTEC and our volume flow sensors, which can be used to monitor and evaluate the energy efficiency of compressed air systems.

IMMS has developed the modular embedded sensor platform for this purpose. This high-performance and scalable system takes over the digital processing of the sensor data for each measuring point of the monitoring system. So that sensors can be flexibly adapted for different purposes without having to make changes to the hardware, IMMS has developed the signal processing components using a model-based design technology and configured the application algorithms for integration into the electronic components. The platform is also equipped for future requirements and can be integrated into maintenance systems, as appropriate communications interfaces and protocols were implemented by IMMS.

We are very satisfied with the result – the many years of IMMS experience in the design of embedded systems, with industrial projects and also the system understanding of IMMS from the previous product developments with SONOTEC have clearly contributed to the success. In addition, the uncomplicated and at the same time professional way of working as well as the pleasant and objective communication have helped us to make good progress. We plan to use the developed system for our measurement technology and service offerings and look forward to the next opportunity to cooperate with IMMS for new developments.“