Smart Products – intelligent connectors

Intelligence comes from the Latin word “intellegere” and means something like to realize, understand or grasp. Intelligence thus describes the ability to find one’s way in new situations and to solve tasks by thinking.

Many new electronic solutions are touted as “intelligent”. Intelligent, or smart products, react to user behaviour, analyze it and draw conclusions from it. They begin to act independently according to the user’s preferences.

What is it all about?

Examples are often the best way to understand. Let’s take a hospital with 10 floors, each with 20 patient rooms. The patients are permanently monitored using a wide range of medical equipment.

Pulse, blood pressure, oxygen saturation and other parameters are measured. If all this is done by a multifunctional device, we end up with 200 devices. Plus a few in reserve for replacement or maintenance. So, let’s assume 250. So many medical devices represent a considerable investment. Are they really all necessary? In addition to the initial investment, there are also maintenance costs for servicing, cleaning, and repairs.

It’s getting smart now

To find out what the hospital’s actual needs are, medical equipment can be made “smart”. The standardized IEC device plug is replaced by its smart counterpart. The new smart device plug now records all consumption data (not patients’ data!) and sends it to a protected cloud where it is analyzed. Was the appliance even in use? From when to when? This consumption data analysis then provides the hospital management with clear facts about how many devices are needed and used. In large hospitals, there is enormous potential for savings here.

Usage requirements

No upfront investment is required to use smart connectors. Smart appliance connector systems can be installed in any electrical or electronic device that requires an IEC 60320 connector. This is likely to be the lion’s share of all devices currently in use. Thanks to standardized connections.

DT31 — smart stand-alone device for connecting any type of device with IEC 60320 connector.

Potential services

A cloud is basically nothing more than a powerful computer that communicates with other computers via the Internet. Cloud-based applications and data can be accessed from virtually any device with an Internet connection. Thanks to networked backups and redundant systems, hardware failures do not lead to data loss.

SCHURTER relies on cloud solutions that offer the best possible security and the highest possible data protection. The type and number of applications for which smart device connectors can offer real added value is almost unlimited. The type and number of applications for which smart device connectors can provide real added value is virtually unlimited.

Process visualization

Process visualization is the graphical representation of processes with the aim of presenting complexity as simply as possible. Process visualization can be used to derive optimized processes and concrete workflows.

Preventive maintenance

To ensure high productivity and availability of a system, preventive maintenance of the entire system is a good idea. Maintenance intervals are thus adhered to, and production continues.

Energy management

An energy management system shows how much energy a company or certain production systems consume — and what continuous and day-to-day possibilities there are to reduce this consumption.

Remote maintenance

In the context of remote maintenance, systems are administered spatially separated. Consequently, the technician is in a different location from the user.

Customized solutions

A software solution has not already been written for every potential problem. Customized solutions address the specific needs of the individual customer.

SCHURTER covers worldwide locations, find out more information, visit: https://www.schurter.com/en/products-and-solutions/smart-products.

Top image caption: Smart Ecosystem connects devices of any kind with internet-based services via standardized IEC connectors.