The news of Schubert & Salzer Control Systems GmbH

Schubert & Salzer Control Systems is starting the roll-out-phase of a retrofittable IIoT module for control valves. It makes monitoring and predictive maintenance simple even for plant operating companies without special prior knowledge.

The digital transformation of industry promises us permanent and global data availability – an ideal that can often only be realised with high expenditure, because the installation of new hardware and wired data infrastructures is time consuming and costly. In addition, the selection, setup and operation of the software for data acquisition and analysis requires specific technical knowledge that must additionally be acquired or purchased.
With its control valves, Schubert & Salzer Control Systems is now solving this problem for customers with a special IIoT module. Even already existing positioners from the valve manufacturer can be retrofitted very easily with the new plug & play solution. The modules are immediately able to make their data available via a mobile phone connection.  Instead of retrieving these data via cable or Bluetooth, the data are now available to the customer all over the world – without having to set foot in the plant.

“In the future, it is intended that our IIoT module will be able to make data available for the user’s own cloud solutions, too. Primarily, we also wanted to develop a plug & play solution with our product. That’s why we offer, as a manner of speaking, a “turnkey” IIoT platform that can also be used by plant operating companies that have no cloud platform of their own. This solution offers global access, a good overview of the data and is immediately ready to use“, explains Christoph Lukasik, Head of Design and Development at Schubert & Salzer.

Benefits for maintenance and service
From commissioning to monitoring to the evaluation of the incoming data for predictive maintenance, IIoT offers the user a wide range of benefits. Beyond that, users also benefit when service is necessary, because in the case of abnormalities and discrepancies in the control behaviour, the plant operating company can enable online access for Schubert & Salzer, via which the relevant data can then be observed. This often makes it possible to make a remote diagnosis and solve the problem within a very short time and without an on-site visit.

Manipulation is physically impossible
A particularly important aspect of the new development was security against cyberattacks and unauthorised access. Communication between the IIoT module and the positioner was therefore deliberately designed as a one-way street. “The module is controlled 100% by the controller. It only sends data to the cloud that the controller actively provides. The module itself cannot request data from the controller or actively execute commands.  It is also not technically capable of making changes to the controller“, Lukasik adds.

IIoT for everyone
Following an exhaustive test and development phase, the first roll-out of the technology has been taking place since April 2023. “The feedback so far has been positive and very promising. Together with our customers and their feedback, we are aiming to optimise the IIoT module even further over the course of the coming year and to adapt it to the needs of the user“, Lukasik concludes.