A cloud-based gas use monitoring and allocation software system. The ideal solution for applications where consistent gas supply is critical or shared laboratory gas usage that needs to be monitored and analysed at user specific applications points for budget allocation purposes.
FTI are partnered with the Gas Arc Speciality Gases Group (GCE / Druva / ESAB) to offer the laboratory gases industry the ability to track gas process parameters, analyse gas consumption and identify gas leaks and over-consumption as well as identify the amount of gas being consumed at specific outlet points within buildings and individual laboratory uses.
Pain Relievers
- Reduce administration of manual gas level checking
- Reduce the chance of unforeseen outages
- Reduce the chance of gas parameters being out of specification
- No IT hardware on site, no IT maintenance on site
- Subscription based to reduce initial capital outlays
Gain Creators
- Be in control of your gas consumption across your operations and sites
- Allocate your actual gas cost per project or product
- Get full gas traceability
- Easy to use dashboards and reports
- Track all your sites, regardless of location
- Easy to retro fit to an existing installation
Measure Outcomes
- Accurate and real time data
- Precise consumption monitoring for cost allocation
- Removing gas leakages and over-consumption
Summary
- Easy to use application interface, with dashboard, reports and notifications remotely via app, mail or phone.
- Simple to configurable pressure, temperature and flow-rate sensor data
- Robust sensor devices with ATEX certification with long battery life for low maintenance and mesh network capability
- Security (Encrypted data transmission, data hosted on Microsoft Azure)
- Easy user, permission and site management
FloCloud features an easy-to-use analytics dashboard and reporting system that tracks every end user point and sends notifications if gas pressure drops or if gas flow is outside of required parameters, improving real-time data and reducing the need for manual checks on gas availability and depleting cylinders.
Additionally, FloCloud tracks complete gas consumption per application / user, allowing specific budget and costings to be allocated across multiple users and projects. This information is valuable for cost analysis and job estimating by easily allocating gas cost to a specific job/project to be more competitive in quotes and more profitable in projects. Knowing exactly how much gas is used within the gas supply system also helps regulate preventative maintenance to replace seals and other consumables.
Customers with early access to FloCloud have seen the following advantages:
- Stopping leaks and over-consumption saved a large gas consumer in the petrochemical industry more than €1 million on its gas spend and more than 240,000 l (8,475 cu. ft.) in welding gas use.
- Another customer was losing €6,000 per day by shutting the line down to swap gas cylinders. With FloCloud’s tracking mechanism and knowing exactly how much gas is needed per job, the user now never runs out of gas in the middle of a shift and cylinder swaps are completed during scheduled breaks or shift changes.
For further information or to arrange a discussion / site survey to get a better understanding of the huge benefits that FloCloud can offer please contact us.
Click here to download our Fact Sheet.
FAQs
Q. Is there a flowchart illustrating the entire FloCloud process starting from the gas cylinder
A. We can use the FloCloud dashboard as a good visual explanation:
Cylinder 1 – Clear
Cylinder 2 – Clear
Semi Autochange* – 2x HP Sensor are connected to the high pressure sides of the panel, allowing the sensor to detect the cylinder bottle pressure, 1x LP Sensor is connected to the low pressure side of the panel, allowing the sensor to detect the outlet pressure.
*Gateway (Not shown above) – This gateway wirelessly connects to the HP and LP sensors and transmits the data from the sensor into the cloud and to the FloCloud Dashboard. The gateway can use wifi, ethernet or a local GSM module to use a mobile network.
Mass Flow Meter** – This is a flow meter connected to our instrumentation reader, and reads the flow pass through
**Instrumentation Reader (Not shown above) – This device transmits data from the flow meter, into the gateway and then (similarly to the pressure sensors) will transmit the data to the FloCloud dashboard
These HP/LP Sensors and MFM (with Instrumentation Reader) allow the customer to view information about their system remotely and quickly on the bottle pressures, the current outlet pressure of the system, the flow rate into their process.
Q. Does it only work with the gas distribution manifold devices shown in the PPT, or is it also operable with GCE’s traditional PUR manifold and cylinder regulator products? (As far as I know it can work with PUR manifolds, but I am not sure about cylinder regulators due to the lack of a wall plate)
A. FloCloud’s pressure sensors would work perfectly fine with just a regulator too, the sensors are not overly heavy (200g per sensor), and would be ok to connect directly to a cylinder regulator.
Q. Would it be possible to get a screenshot where the dashboard is more clearly visible, showing what data FloCloud displays and at what time intervals?
A. These are demo units so are not being used on a daily basis, but will provide an idea on what information is displayed. Below you can see an example of the visibility of all gas systems and the gas consumption associated with each. It will then provide an aggregated consumption and aggregated average flow per system.
There are lots of different views, dependant on how frequently you want to view gas consumption data – please see below:
The pressure sensors themselves can be program to collect data as quickly as every second (1Hz) or as infrequently as the customer requires it. The est. time to collect data from the sensor and push it through the gateway and to the FloCloud dashboard is 20 seconds, providing them with up to date information as soon as they require it.
Q. Would the license fee be paid annually?
A. The customer would be responsible for paying for their license (1 license is required per sensor) annually, lasting 12 months.