Tell us about your company’s products & services?

National Instruments' (NI's) platform-based approach combines modular hardware, flexible software and services to help you solve complex engineering challenges.

Hardware: NI provides a range of Data Acquisition platforms, such as CompactDAQ, embedded control and monitoring hardware such as CompactRIO, an all-in-one modular instruments platform such as PXI, as well as hardware products for industrial communications buses, instrument control and much more.

Software: NI provides many powerful and flexible software platforms. These include (but are not limited to):

• LabVIEW: a graphical programming approach for interfacing with measurement and control hardware, analysing data, publishing results, and distributing systems.
• LabWindows™/CVI: an ANSI C integrated development environment for creating test and control applications.
• TestStand for test execution sequencing
• NI InsightCM™ Enterprise: a software solution for online condition monitoring applications with cost-effective and integrated hardware options for monitoring critical and ancillary rotating equipment.

NI products are used in a variety of industries such as the industrial machinery, heavy equipment, energy, electronics, automotive, wireless, semiconductor, aerospace and defence industries.

Services and Training: NI provides different services such as calibration, system configuration and assembly, maintenance programs, repair services and replacement parts, service agreements, as well as consulting and integration through NI and its extensive network of NI Alliance Partners.

Alliance Partners are equipped to work with customers to develop custom solutions. From developing a proof of concept to deployment and post-sales support, partners can assist customers with some of their toughest engineering problems. In addition to the services, NI provides more than 40 training courses created and taught by NI engineers to help you gain the skills you need to design and develop high-quality applications.

What are its applications?
NI products solve engineering challenges across a broad range of industries. To name a few applications relevant to the Electra Mining Event, we have:

• The 'Smart Grid'
• Power quality analysis
• Condition monitoring for predictive maintenance
• Smart machine control
• Measurements and instrumentation
• Data acquisition and data logging
• Process control

These applications are in addition to other verticals such as RF, robotics and EW, among others.

What makes the product unique?
For the Electra Mining event, we will be talking about one product specifically, which is mostly used for predictive maintenance: NI InsightCM Enterprise with CompactRIO platform for condition monitoring.

Using CompactRIO you can perform advanced data logging or online monitoring in even the most extreme environments.  CompactRIO provides a highly reliable, headless solution that enables continuous monitoring of critical assets. CompactRIO platform allows you to take your logging and monitoring one step further by incorporating processing directly on the FPGA.  This provides the ability to process and analyse acquired data in real-time locally at the edge, as well as across the entire enterprise, to make informed decisions fast.

NI InsightCM Enterprise is a cost-effective software solution for online condition monitoring applications. With this deployment-ready solution, you can acquire, analyse, and visualise data from a range of sensors and technologies for an in-depth view of your assets. Use this open, flexible, scalable solution to monitor a larger percentage of your fleet and drive predictive maintenance programs. NI InsightCM Enterprise offers:

• Built-in analytics and alarming capabilities, as well as remote interactive visualisation of waveform data
• Scalability to hundreds of acquisition devices per server
• Support for vibration and process measurements using integrated hardware options
• Remote management of monitoring systems and users
• IT-friendly security features that include user and device authentication

Where was the product developed?
NI has several research and development (R&D) teams based in the US, Malaysia and India. The CompacRIO platform, along with the InsightCM Enterprise software were developed by the R&D team in the US.

Has the product been imported or manufactured locally?  
NI has manufacturing plants in the US, Malaysia and Hungary. The CompactRIO platform is manufactured in Hungary, while the InsightCM Enterprise software solution was developed in the US.

On which projects, if any, has the product been used successfully?

London Underground Improves Reliability for 200 Million Annual Passengers with Remote Condition Monitoring

The Challenge: Predicting London Underground track circuit failures that cause disruption to the travelling public – to increase signalling asset uptime and schedule appropriate maintenance – and completing the project within a compressed timeline of one year.

The Solution: Designing, certifying, and installing a large-scale distributed system to simultaneously monitor 385 deep Tube track circuit assets in real time on an operating railway from a central location. Development time and cost was reduced by using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) tools. Maintainers can now proactively respond to potential failures and management has a better insight into asset lifecycle.

Is the product exportable?
Yes and, since this platform is open and fully customisable, customers and our Alliance Partners can tailor the platform to address multiple application needs.

Please visit http://www.ni.com/insightcm/what-is/ for more detailed information about the product.

Background on the company marketing the product?
NI equips engineers and scientists with systems that accelerate productivity, innovation, and discovery. NI offers a differentiated approach to increase productivity and decrease time to market through a seamless integration of hardware and software.

• US company founded in 1976, headquarter in Austin, Texas
• 35 000+ companies use NI products annually
• 7 400+ employees worldwide
• 1.23B$ revenue
• 16% of annual revenue is invested in R&D
• Operations in nearly 50 countries worldwide

Is there anything else you would like to add?
NI’s platform-based approach combines modular hardware and software to help you solve complex engineering challenges. You cannot build systems to solve the challenges of tomorrow based on the infrastructure and standards available today. That’s why NI innovates for the future based on next-generation system architectures, technologies that are not yet finalised, and communication protocols not yet approved to ensure that our customers stay ahead of the technology curve. With these powerful, off-the-shelf NI solutions, engineers and scientists can tailor their systems to meet their needs now and in the future.