Serck is a leading global provider of industrial and specialist heat transfer solutions, and part of the Unipart Group, which as well as being a leading manufacturing and logistics supplier, is a key provider of industrial products and expertise for Industry 4.0.

Emerson (NYSE: EMR), a global technology and engineering company, today announced it has signed a strategic supply agreement with Serck, headquartered in Oxford UK, to provide a turnkey solution for pervasive sensing and condition-based monitoring in industrial heat exchangers.

Heat exchangers are one of the most widely used pieces of process equipment found on industrial sites. They provide essential thermal management, regulating temperatures of fluids in a process by transferring heat from one fluid to another, without mixing them. They’re used for everything from food and beverage production, to pharmaceutical manufacture, to power generation.

Historically, process plants have been built with only the minimum amount of instrumentation necessary to safely operate units, as on-line monitoring of second-tier equipment, including heat exchangers, has traditionally been deemed cost-prohibitive or too difficult. This results in extended periods in which a heat exchanger could be operating with degraded performance and energy efficiency as fouling increases in the lead up to a scheduled maintenance period, or emergency reactive maintenance, resulting in expensive unexpected shutdowns. The only alternative has been scheduled preventive maintenance on a best-guess timeline, which is effective but also costly, and difficult to manage as heating requirements change.

Continuous monitoring via wireless sensor technology, paired with data interpretation via machine learning provides the ability for plant managers to take a data-led approach to monitoring and maintenance, reducing both unnecessarily early or frequent shutdowns and costly emergency reactive maintenance.

As a result of the Serck and Emerson agreement, plant managers will have access to a one-stop shop in the Smart Heat Exchanger package.

These packages will feature industry-leading heat exchangers, built by Serck, designed for and equipped with elements of Emerson’s Plantweb™ digital ecosystem portfolio of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies used in pervasive sensing, including Rosemount™ wireless measurement technology and Plantweb™ Insight software.

“Our customers, like in all industries, are under constant pressure to increase their efficiency and reduce costs wherever possible. This initiative offers an exciting opportunity for them to explore incorporating and expanding their use of these emerging Industry 4.0 technologies with the added confidence that they’re working with experts they trust who already understand them and business.” – Alexander Neill, Serck Managing Director

This partnership gives customers the ease of operating with a dedicated point of contact for the Smart Heat Exchanger system, as well as the confidence that they will be working with organisations who are leading in the IIoT revolution. This allows sites to smoothly incorporate robust and high-quality heat transfer equipment into their plant that’s also been designed with monitoring in mind, allowing them to rapidly start returning valuable data that can save both time and money, and help contribute to the entire process plant operating at its most efficient and effective.

To learn more about Serck’s offering of the Smart Heat Exchanger Package, see serckglobal.com/smarthx