Case Study 3: Electronics and Wireless Communications

In this last case study, technologies associated with electronics and wireless communications shall be applied to an industrial gases product. The associated technology in this case study is potentially quite broad. There are many methods and techniques, which can be applied and have been applied in other industries. There has also been some application of electronics in the industrial gas sector, particularly in recent years. One area in particular is that of medical gas cylinders. Linde and Air Liquide both have softly launched a medical oxygen cylinder with a digital gauge. In these products the user benefits from a calculated time left before the cylinder is empty as opposed to a pressure indication on a mechanical gauge. There is another product, named Genie® from Linde being used in a number of applications (from welding to balloon gas), that also has an electronic gauge, again displaying the time left before empty. The technical details of these products are shown in the full case study information in Appendix 9, Case Study 3: Electronics and Wireless Communications.

A number of key issues are identified in the offerings by Linde and Air Liquide. Firstly, the cost of the package is greatly increased. Secondly, the accuracy of the information in all cases is not significantly greater than that of a mechanical gauge. It is the format of the information that has been improved (time in hours and minutes as opposed to pressure in bar). In all cases, wireless communications are not offered as standard and it is unclear if any of the highlighted products actually work with a wireless communications system. In all of the above applications, the technologies applied are generally off- the-shelf use of sensors and displays.

A review of the product provider and end user needs was created to identify gaps in the current products and areas for innovation. This resulted in the list of requirements below:

 Accurate measurement of content (for compressible gases)  Low power consumption circuits

 Maintenance intervals to be long, greater than 2 years  Display screens to be used cautiously

 Data protection to be designed in  Ease of use

 Low cost

 Useable in the external environment as well as internal

The main issues presented with current technologies are high costs, high power consumption in circuits and low accuracy of the measurement. This is largely dictated by the incumbent measurement technology of pressure sensing. In order to achieve step changes the sensing technology should be

re-considered. The other identified areas of need in the list above can be grouped together in two other areas of work. First of all, there are the electronics which shall determine the remaining costs, the display and data protection. A second area is in the design, which affects the ease of use and use in external and internal environments.

One application area considered is with a medical product, there are clear consumer benefits in showing the time left of a cylinder (which would be possible through calculations) but there are barriers to entry in compliance testing and the time to complete such tests. A simpler route would be in the industrial sectors, the largest of which is in metals fabrication. This would also present a challenging market from a cost and product acceptance stand point. It was also noted that if successful it should be easier to replicate the technology to other sectors than with a medical gases product.

The requirement for the sensor development was then outlined. A process was followed of researching technologies, identifying their suitability to industrial gas products and then testing promising technologies. A fundamental strategy was to address the fact that pressure measurement has an inherent inaccuracy as a measure of content with gases (owing to compressibility), unless accurate measurement was also made of gas temperature and volume. With this as a starting point investigations were conducted in mass measurement and density. Mass would be a challenging option owing to the small increments in mass change that would be required to be measured compared to the mass of the cylinder. For instance a typical user flow rate could result in a measurement of 30 grams/minute on a package weight of 100 Kg. This would obviously require a highly accurate and wide range sensor. Density provides an alternative route and a number of technical options were possible. One method of density measurement is through comparing the natural frequency of a quartz resonator in the gas with one in ambient conditions. This would provide a measurement of frequency shift which can be converted to mass (providing volume is known). Quartz measurement products have been developed for gas applications, such as monitoring the presence of sulphur hexafluoride in gas insulated switchgear (Trafag, 2015). A development project was then conducted to apply a quartz measurement method to a gas cylinder; this resulted in a patented technology (USA Patent No. US20130306650. , 2013). The benefits from this technology are the accuracy, low power consumption and cost. The technical details are summarised against a standard pressure transmitter are shown in Appendix 9. What is achieved is a step change in sensing technology. The quartz system is low cost, low power and highly accurate.

Whilst the sensor development was being conducted, an electronics package was developed. The features of this were created through four steps

 Consideration and identification of features in current knowledge base  Idea generation using a forward thinking team

 Survey of users on ideas

 Idea generation using a customer focused team

These steps were taken to balance expressed customer needs along with innovative ideas. It lead to the following features to be identified for inclusion:

Feature Concept

Content Display pressure and or time left

Low content alarm Flashing light and audible would be desirable

Predicted time before empty

Learning algorithm using non-ideal gas laws and actual flow measurements to give time in hrs/mins or greater than specific numbers

Flow Accurate flow measurement calculated by change in density over time.

Options to identify significant changes in flow and inform user.

Usage data Present user consumption patterns and give improved visibility of

information Wireless transmission of

information

Use of latest Bluetooth technology to provide low power option of transmitting information to smart phone app

Re-order product at point of use

Use of data and smart phone app that could automate the re-order process

Leak detection Use of flow measurement could identify flow when no flow is expected

(leaks)

Fault indication Use of a warning graphic to show different faults

Table 5: Table of features

A target cost for the product was devised using a reverse profit and loss methodology. The sales price was used as a driver to determine the budget cost for the electronics package. The sales price was tested through a market survey against the features above in a conjoint analysis.

From these requirements two prototypes were developed to test aspects of the concepts. In particular, how much information to display on the cylinder and how much information could be available on a mobile application. These were tested in six focus groups which determined a favourable mid ground between the products and found all the concepts to be highly desirable. The electronics development was relatively straightforward requiring the necessary board development to take a sensed reading, conduct calculations then transmit wirelessly the information to a remote display. A learning and adaptive calculation of content based on density changes was developed using a variety of application scenarios. This led to a patent application on the calculation process.

The wireless communications feature was developed following a review of communication options. This was conducted through a rating exercise on the features of cost and power consumption (two

key drivers identified earlier) along with other strengths and weaknesses. The results of this review are presented in the full case study report in Appendix 9. Bluetooth 4.0 offered the lowest cost and lowest power consumption but also had wider technical features, particularly in two way communication and connection distance.

A mobile application was developed which had a number of challenging areas. Firstly, as this was new ground, it was important to understand and provide features which the customers would benefit from. Secondly, the technology chosen in Bluetooth 4.0 was in its infancy and would therefore could be likely to have some technical issues to overcome. The application was developed using a story board approach which was then tested both technically and with customers as a concept. The first concept was deliberately built with a number of features in, these could then be reduced based on customer feedback. Through focus groups three key areas of the application were identified, the cylinder information itself, customer account information and, lastly, technical support. The final mobile application was based on these areas and a partner was used to develop the application. There were a number of programming challenges which the partner overcame, such as how to handle tens to hundreds of cylinders in the application, and how to quickly connect to individual cylinders. The resulting mobile application was completed with features such as; an overview of all cylinders in a location, individual information of a cylinder and its use, re-ordering in a three step system at the point of use, and support information. The details of the mobile application are shown in Appendix 9. The use of the customer focus groups led to a final design of electronics package and mobile application. These are shown in Appendix 9.

The result of the development was a product with which customers interacted more enthusiastically. This is likely to be due to the increase in contact time of the customer with the product compared to standard offerings. The product enabled the customer to have access to an increased amount of data about their gas and its use. The usefulness of the data and improvements are still to be fully realised. This requires a longer term survey of the customer use of the data and the data itself. The technology enhancements and benefits could not have been as well achieved without the breakthrough sensor developed. The unique characteristics of high accuracy, low power and low cost enabled an electronics product for a conservative, tough environment that is highly price sensitive.

5.6.1 Summary of Case Study 3: Electronics and Wireless Communications

It was identified that a key growth area for many products has been to equip products with electronic features to gather increased amounts of data on performance that can be used to give the customer more information, from which, improved decisions can be made. It has been seen that electronic

sensing and display technologies have been applied to the industrial gases industry but with limited success in the gas cylinder market. A project was identified, in which, a compelling cylinder product has been developed. In this project the failings of other electronic cylinders was addressed (the product life, cost and accuracy). The reasoning why these areas required improvement was found to be largely due to the sensing system. A specific development programme was followed for a new sensor while the electronics system was developed separately along with wireless communications. The sensor developed breaks new ground in many areas and has further possibilities. The cost, accuracy and durability are all in-line with the expectations set out. This means that a highly applicable sensor has been developed. The technology can be considered for developments of flow sensing, plant monitoring, and gas detection.

There is clearly much more that can be done with an electronic enabled cylinder. There are replications into a wide range of gas variants, applications and sectors (medical, food, high purity). There is wider use of the technology in supply chain management such as customer demand planning and inventory control. There are additional features that can be enabled, in particular with additional sensors. For example, a g-force sensor could identify the cylinder movements (loading, unloading and customer handling) and any safety incidents (cylinder falls).

A summary of the findings towards the original set of questions asked of the technology development are detailed below in Table 21.

Question Findings Drawbacks Further work

Can the technology be applied to the industrial gas business?

Yes. Electronics was

shown to be

applicable and deliver a feature rich product

The complexity of the product is increased

Continue to

develop in the field knowledge on use and application Are benefits seen in the

application and are these benefits similar to those seen in other industries?

Yes. Customers

engage with the

features and product. The data generated opens new options

There is an impact in product costs but this is

similar to other

industries

Quantification of the supply chain benefits

What is the likely uptake? Positive from the

focus groups.

The product will appeal to early adopters for others it may take time to be convinced

Monitor the

introduction of the product

What are the specific

challenges experienced

and anticipated, and are these similar to other industries?

Some technical

difficulties with the product which is inline with other electronic products.

Mechanical systems

are still more reliable.

Develop extended life testing and

robustness of

software like other industries do