Condition monitoring in facilities management

In the late 1970s, hospitals and airports began using portable instruments from SPM to regularly measure fans and motors for air conditioning systems. Since then, many managers of high-reliability demands buildings have also started using SPM equipment.

Condition monitoring – a game-changer for facility management

Today, facility managers running buildings for medical manufacturing, clean room environments in the electronic industry, and data centres with safety-critical computer systems consider condition monitoring a must to secure the reliability of the environment and ensure safe production. In recent years, high energy costs have forced building owners to look at reducing maintenance costs by changing from planned preventive maintenance to condition-based maintenance. At the same time, tenants are demanding higher standards for the environment and reliability in important sectors. This has led owners of high-profile office buildings like banks and call centres to invest in new strategies.

SPM Instrument UK and Centrica received the British Institute of Facilities Management Innovation Award for developing the “talking building” concept, an approach enhancing reliability and reducing operating costs by up to 30% by connecting building systems online. It typically monitors rotating machinery, such as motors, pumps, fans, air filters, boilers, and junction boxes, tracking key metrics like bearing condition, vibration, temperature balance, and electrical safety.

Equipment for condition monitoring from SPM is also used in bank buildings, shopping centres, clean rooms, data centres, and laboratories.