At the heart of the Power Pack are state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries in combination with a special battery management system.

© Conductix-Wampfler

Electrified, rubber-tired gantry cranes - so-called 'E-RTG' cranes (Rubber Tired Gantry Cranes) - are used for handling goods between sea and land transportation in the container depots of the ports. As they are not rail-guided, they can be used flexibly for aisle changes in the container depot, for example. However, this has a direct impact on the crane's power supply: when moving outside the container aisle, this can no longer be provided via conductor rails or motorized cable reels, but must be ensured 'on board' the crane.

Until now, diesel generators have generally been used for this purpose, but their acceptance is declining sharply for environmental and cost reasons. As an alternative, Conductix-Wampfler has therefore developed battery containers that are mounted directly on the crane and allow it a high degree of freedom of movement. However, these containers contain technically sophisticated components whose perfect functioning and high availability require regular monitoring of critical operating parameters using appropriate sensors.

In order to meet these requirements, Conductix-Wampfler has launched an IoT test project together with Schildknecht. The 'Dataeagle 7050' serves as the edge gateway. On the input side, it has a Bluetooth LE interface for wireless recording of up to eight sensor signals and a fieldbus interface. In the case of Conductix-Wampfler, critical sensor data from the respective machine, such as voltage, temperature, pressure or humidity, is continuously recorded via the gateway's Bluetooth interface and pre-processed or compressed in the device. This means that data is only transmitted in the event of an alarm or status change, which ultimately reduces the data stream enormously and enables cost-optimized communication.

... Device Cloud, which can also be used to manage the devices.

© Conductix-Wampfler

This measurement data is then sent to the cloud or to the Schildknecht portal via mobile communications for display and further analysis. A special feature here is that the integrated eSIM card automatically selects the best network from 400 providers (unsteered roaming) - meaning that every machine or battery container can be used worldwide.

It is also possible to manage the parameterization of the gateways, the billing of mobile data or the users in the portal. This channel can also be used to update the software of devices, for example, with TÜV-certified end-to-end encryption of the data. This distinguishes Schildknecht's 'Device Cloud' from a pure data cloud such as Amazon. In general, however, it is possible to connect to common cloud-based systems via the API interface of the Device Cloud. In the long term, there are also plans for users to have the data delivered directly to their own cloud or ERP systems.

The initial results of the project give both partners confidence: "We see this Industry 4.0 solution as an important support for our future business development. Customers expect our systems to be operational at all times. The aim of the ongoing trials is to guarantee precisely this," says Michael Eckle, who is responsible for innovation at Conductix-Wampfler.

Author:
Thomas Schildknecht is the founder and CEO of Schildknecht.