Case Study: AIT/Sonem

Smart Edge Turnkey solution for optimizing brewing processes

 

Case study together with AIT GmbH and SONEM Solutions GmbH

 

Industry: Oil & Gas & Process

Region: Europe

Connected Sensor / Device: Sonem Smart Ultrasonic Sensor

Related Moxa Products: IIoT Gateway (UC product line)

Application: Sensor-to-Cloud (IIoT Gateway)

Country: Germany

Cloud/IT Platform: Microsoft Azure

Related MOXA IIoT Partner: AIT GmbH

 

The Challenge

 

To ensure high quality of the beer, breweries give their beers additional development time in the process steps. This requires higher energy consumption and increased cycle times. Beer manufacturers need solid processes derived from reliable data. All too often, entire batches must be thrown away because of compromised data. Brewers need support to get their systems back up and running to maximum efficiency.

SONEM Solutions set out to do exactly that for its customers, to offer a solution that permits easier data management, regular model updates and sensor state monitoring. A joint case study was launched with IoT specialists, AIT GmbH and MOXA Europe, a leading manufacturer of industrial communication devices. Both companies are members of the Microsoft Partner Network.

 

 

The Solution

 

SONEM Solutions, MOXA, and AIT launched their joint case study in late 2019.

SONEM Solutions GmbH, a leading manufacturer of stand-alone ultrasonic sensors is responding to the unique brewery landscape in Germany with turnkey solutions for efficient brewing processes.

“Due to the high sensitivity multiple processes can be monitored and optimized within the brewery,” outlines Maximilian Sträb, Marketing and Sales Manager at SONEM.

AIT is collaborating with Moxa to help SONEM Solutions drive digital transformation and to help breweries of any size optimize the brewing process. AIT specialists developed a set of building blocks based on Microsoft’s Azure IoT Edge. The collected data was transmitted to an IoT gateway where it could be aggregated, analyzed, and further processed before being transmitted to the cloud.

“Our technology opens up new possibilities to optimize and monitor production processes,” outlines SONEM’s CEO and founder, Sebastian Minning. Due to the sensitive ultrasonic technology a wide variety of fluids can be monitored in the production line in real time. ”Based on the molecular acoustics, different fluids can be clearly classified and monitored during the entire production process. The captured data set allows due to its informative content a detailed and diverse analysis,” explains Minning.

Our Smart Edge solution based on Microsoft Azure IoT Edge and MOXA’s superior, reliable and highly robust IIoT connectivity solution, to ensure beer quality, is working – we are helping craft breweries in Germany achieve operational nimbleness, assure quality, and increase margins.

 

Why Moxa?

 

Moxa provides the hardware that connects the data with the cloud, devices that are ideally suited to industrial environments,  are less expensive, smaller and more temperature resistant than old industrial PCs. Moxa’s Edge Module permits management and maintenance of the gateway itself. The collected data can be pre-processed on the edge side and then analysed and visualised in detail in the cloud.