The intelligent brain in the fans from ZIEHL-ABEGG

For the future of new galaxies – ZAbluegalaxy

Intelligent fans play a key role worldwide for the successful future protection of our climate. This quickly becomes apparent as the mathematics are very simple. Everything that has moving parts has to be cooled accordingly, otherwise overheating will cause e.g. endless numbers of powered motors to shut down. Fans in whatever size and shape required, ensure this is prevented from happening. Since simply everything nowadays moves in one form or another, independently of the air handling and cooling requirements, there is really no point giving a sample calculation here – it’s simply impossible to determine how many fans there actually are worldwide.

Fans are indispensable

One thing that is certain, however, is that fans are an indispensable part of our daily lives. As one of the world’s leading fan manufacturers and the only company with an inconceivably large portfolio of environmentally-friendly and highly efficient fans and motors developed on the basis of knowledge gained from biomimetics as well as inimitable engineering, the ZIEHL-ABEGG corporate philosophy has for many years embodied a commitment to the development and in-house manufacture of sustainable products as efficiently and climate-friendly as possible.

However, the future calls for even more, especially highly intelligent fans that can cope with the demands of a digitalized future that is now going through a period of radical change, are simultaneously highly efficient and energy-saving, reduce total noise levels and, of course, reduce CO₂ emissions to a minimum.

Highly intelligent fans

These fans, known by the name blue technology, are today already a firmly established element of the ZIEHL-ABEGG portfolio, and even more than this – these intelligent fans have the ability to integrate into global networks, provide a 360º view anywhere in the world and at any time and allow for predictive maintenance conveniently from one location.

To make all this possible, ZIEHL-ABEGG has taken up this challenge and created not only the technical but also the financial conditions required for this: having the top, highly capable partner Deutsche Telekom on-board, facilitated the joint development of an unparalleled IoT platform based on Microsoft Azure. Today, the fans, equipped with highly intelligent sensors, are already transmitting their status in encrypted form via an IoT gateway to ZIEHL-ABEGG’s newly created cloud – ZAbluegalaxy – where the system data is stored, analyzed and visualized in the high-security data rooms created for this purpose.

The major advantages of ZAbluegalaxy and the intelligent fans for customers

The orientation of the intelligent fans is phenomenal: in addition to live analysis and remote monitoring, maintenance intervals can also be optimized. Up to now, maintenance has been carried out on a regular basis – even when it wasn’t actually necessary. Today, the system automatically reports when maintenance is due. Another advantage: Customers can use the data they receive for research and development purposes in order to continually improve processes and shorten development times.

In the future, using the browser-based dashboard, with a clear and transparent design, customers can view their systems and the related information which is continually updated. With just one click in their highly secure user area, they can get precise location-based information on the fans and real-time insights, make observations and gain knowledge which can be used for commercial measures.

Integrated remote monitoring automatically informs technicians by email, push notification or SMS of any malfunctions or anomalies, such as when a certain temperature is exceeded. Whereas in the past technicians had to travel to and search for the source of the error on site, today the ZAbluegalaxy dashboard gives precise information on where the error is occurring and what the potential cause might be. This enables technicians to take the necessary spare parts with them and quickly eliminate the fault, not only saving customers service costs but also reducing downtimes.
Incidentally: there is also the option of retrofitting fans in existing use.
“We’re ready for the future,” that’s the conclusion of ZIEHL-ABEGG’s management.

ZAbluegalaxy – Cloud-based industrial web platform with data rooms, analytics, management portals and advanced services for connecting on-premise and other cloud data systems. With clear dashboard & user-friendly interface, extremely simple to use with highly intelligent functions