Siemens have upgraded the Simatic maintenance station software for the diagnosis and maintenance of plants and machinery with new features focusing on diagnostic functionality and plant asset management.
Simatic maintenance station, a software option for the Simatic WinCC SCADA system, supports preventive, condition-based and reactive maintenance activities of a plant in a central system. It now offers functions for the efficient planning and monitoring of maintenance operations and jobs. Simatic maintenance station also allows devices in the field to access it through a web client for remote maintenance, such as panel PCs with touch controls that can be used to carry out diagnostic measures on-site.
Simatic maintenance station software visualises diagnostic and maintenance information from a PC to network components and to controllers, switching, protection and control units, as well as drives. The plant operators receive a uniform and clear status display. Using this, they can identify components, systems or plant units, assess them individually and where appropriate, respond quickly to special situations. Based on the condition of the components, appropriate measures for machinery and plant maintenance can be undertaken at the right time to reduce or avoid downtimes. This contributes directly to low maintenance costs and high productivity.
Simatic maintenance station software passes on maintenance requests to target systems such as a computer. All operations are message-based and are therefore easy to archive and understand. This results in an extensive database that can be analysed with WinCC.
The configuration of Simatic maintenance station software is easy as it uses Step 7 project data that is available from the plant set-up phase. Components from other manufacturers are incorporated using standards-based procedures.