Shell launches oil condition monitoring for marine sector
Shell announced the launch of VitalyX, an intelligent, advanced analytics-based oil condition monitoring and machine health service for the marine sector.
VitalyX is powered by Shell Remote Sense and Bently Nevada, a Baker Hughes business. VitalyX combines Shell Remote Sense’ lubricant analysis expertise with Bently Nevada’s 60-year experience in condition monitoring and protection to offer an early warning system that remotely monitors oil quality to increase machine uptime.
Current lubrication oil monitoring practices involve manual sampling and laboratory testing, which can be prone to human error and delays of multiple weeks. VitalyX works by deploying sensors to critical assets which collect key information about the lubricating oil and machine in real-time. The VitalyX edge computer then sends that data to the cloud where proprietary algorithms and machine learning capabilities convert the lubricant data into alerts/alarms, meaningful insights, and recommendations for your asset.
VitalyX measures up to 15 parameters of lubricating oil and combines them to give a detailed picture of your asset’s health. All parameters have been proven to be comparable to laboratory results, in accordance with relevant ASTM specifications.
By deploying industrial internet of things (IIOT) and artificial intelligence (AI) technology, VitalyX provides customers with actionable insights to optimise equipment health, lower maintenance costs and increase operational efficiency of marine vessels.
“We are delighted to bring the advanced capabilities of Shell Remote Sense to our marine customers in partnership with Bently Nevada. Shell understands the importance of good lubricant management and its impact on equipment life. With Shell Remote Sense, shipowners and operators can continuously monitor oil conditions across multiple components on a vessel. Customers will have vital and predictive information at their fingertips to make proactive decisions on maintenance planning and extend equipment life,” said Shell Marine’s general manager Services & Technical, Marcus Schaerer.
“Digitalization is maturing rapidly in the marine sector, with the data drawn from real-time remote monitoring not only enhancing operations and improving safety, but also delivering significant efficiency gains. VitalyX provides operators with the predictive capability to optimize maintenance cost management, by switching from a time-based to a health-based approach. This partnership between Shell and Bently Nevada combines the best of our expertise, as we invest for growth to further advance digital transformation and industrial asset management,” said Ed J. Boufarah, vice president, Bently Nevada, a Baker Hughes business.
