Italy-based Berco manufactures undercarriages for heavy machinery. The company's Bopis Life cloud-based platform allows customers to monitor the rate of wear of each undercarriage component, and thus to know the parts remaining service life.
As well as providing important information for end users, Berco says the data collected in the field and archived by Bopis Life allows it to improve its own technology constantly, in terms of product development and production processes.
Berco field engineer Luca Bellintani comments: “The undercarriage is a source of high maintenance costs for owners of tracked machines. Berco is therefore continuing to develop more user-friendly, all-round digital solutions to monitor the wear of components. Bopis Life allows the customer to monitor the wear of components, and to optimise planning of warehouse provision and operational efficiency, leading to a significant reduction in TCO (Total Cost of Ownership)”.
The updated version of the Bopis Life application, which can be installed on any PC, tablet or smartphone, allows dealers or Field Engineering technicians to upload the properties of the machine inspected, along with the location data.
Berco says the updated version provides a clear context for analysis, and technicians can begin the inspection, and record on the Bopis Life app all the data gathered from measurements of the undercarriage parts. Assessments can be taken with manual tool kits, or with ultrasound devices connected via Bluetooth to the tablet or smartphone. Ultrasound devices give more accurate values and cut the time needed for measurement and data processing.
The data gathered using the Bopis Life mobile app is uploaded to the cloud and compared with the wear limits shown in the Berco (Bopis) online product catalogue. This gives the rate of wear and the remaining service life of the component concerned. The undercarriage parts measured are the chains and their sub-components (links, bushing and shoes), carrier rollers, track rollers, idlers and sprockets.
