Supervising transport with impact recorder

Supervising critical transports with Mobitron Cargolog impact recorder

Medium voltage system drive key components, such as the VFDs, transformers and motors, are sensitive, expensive and critical equipment. It is therefore of utmost importance to pay attention not just during manufacturing and factory testing, but also during transportation to site.

The transport of the equipment can often be underestimated in context of quality. The equipment may have successfully passed all factory tests. Yet, during trial operation on site some abnormalities appear. A possible root cause may be the transport to site.

In fact, drive system components can travel quite a long way before they reach their final destination. For example, shipping the equipment from Europe to Asia or vice versa involves road transport, reloading on a ship, sea freight, again reloading on a truck etc. During transport, loading and unloading the cargo is exposed to certain level of vibration and shock. Are the levels within the limits specified by the manufacturer, everything is fine. Are the levels exceeded, there is a risk of damage.

A solution to check the conditions during the transport is an installation of impact recorder. There is a large variety of products on the market: from simple single-purpose devices up to very sophisticated multi-functional sensors. The simple recorders just provide maximum value that occured during transportation or handling (e.g. maximum angle or acceleration). Advanced recorders can offer much more. They are able to sense multiple physical quantities, such as acceleraton, angle, temperature, humidity etc. Values are stored in the internal memory of the device and can be analyzed after the transport. Moreover, the device allows remote connectivity and clowd based data storage. It is possible to follow the cargo transport online in your computer or smartphone. The user can set the limits for alarm and gets automatic notification when the limits are exceeded.

In our company we use Mobitron Cargolog to monitor the transport. The manufacturer provides several variants: Basic / Standard / with GPS logging / with online tracking. Our choice was a device that checks almost all the boxes. It is not the cheapest impact recorder but definitely one of the most advanced. It can record all the quantities mentioned earlier, i.e. acceleration in all three axes, angle (inclination), temperature and humidity. Each measurement data is associated with a time stamp and, if activated, corresponding GPS coordinates. The user can set the overall recording period as well as the sampling rate of each signal individually. Depending on your setings you immediately see a bar with the estimated battery usage for the parameterized job. We find this feature extremely useful as it shall be avoided that the battery gets empty during the recording period and some data will be lost.

Besides the device funtionality itself there are few more reasons why we decided for Mobitron Cargolog. I must say that it is a real Swedish quality. The impact recorder itself is manufactured in Sweden. The accessories, such as GPS and GSM antennas, are mostly manufactured within the EU. The package was profesionally packed and labeled (tagged). There is a step-by-step guide how to parameterize the device. It is really understandable and easy to follow. On top, we got a personalized training from Mobitron representative per video. The training belongs to the product purchase – you don’t pay anything extra. That is a nice service showing that the company cares about their customers, no matter if large or small.

Finally, the communication with Mobitron representatives is really easy and efficient. They are highly responsive. As the company is neither too small nor too large you get the right attention as a customer. It is very different from the large corporations where you may need to wait for several days until you get connected with the right speaking partner. And this is what it is all about. When I have a transport that shall depart in several hours and just encountered an issue with the impact recorder, I eventually need a technical support now and not three days later when the cargo is on the way or already reached the destination.

This article may sound like a paid review. However, it is not. We just share our practical experience with this device. It is a certain investment. On the other hand, the money may well pay off in case of issues during transport or discussions with the insurance company. Moreover, the impact recorder can be re-calibrated and therefore in service for many years.