Since its invention 65 years ago, air-operated double-diaphragm (AODD) pump technology has been a loyal soldier in the constant battle to deliver reliable, durable, safe, cost-effective and efficient performance in utilitarian pumping applications, from dewatering mines to producing pharmaceuticals. The plug-and-play reliability of AODD pumps has helped them earn a “set it and forget it” reputation among its many devoted users.
That capability has also prompted some AODD pump users to term the machine a “run to failure” piece of machinery. Th is means that after it is initially turned on, since it requires very little maintenance, it just runs and runs until it cannot run anymore; at which point, it is simply replaced with a new model, starting the whole process over again.
Attitudes have evolved regarding pump monitoring over the past six decades, however. Specifically, the “run to failure” mindset among industrial pump users has generally become a thing of the past for a number of notable reasons: a former understanding of the true cost of equipment downtime; higher pump purchase costs combined with tightening capital-investment budgets; the health and safety risks that malfunctioning pumps can pose to people and the environment; rising maintenance costs for labor and time; and regulatory agencies that are becoming more diligent in demanding that leaks of hazardous and dangerous products occur less often.
All of these factors prompted the developers of many types of pump technologies to invent ways that their machines could be monitored without the need of a technician to actually be on-hand to visually gauge and record the pump’s performance levels. With that, significant breakthroughs have been made in cloud-based remote monitoring technology for a number of popular pump technologies, especially those that are more complicated to operate and have correspondingly higher purchase, maintenance and repair costs, which makes it less cost-effective to simply replace them when a breakdown occurs.
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