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Life sciences storage

Temperature Monitoring That Doesn't Stop

Precise, around-the-clock temperature monitoring for a materials storage facility, with custom alarms, enterprise data feeds, and automatic failover to a standby machine.

cDAQ chassisthermocouples, RTDscDAQ chassisthermocouples, RTDscDAQ chassisthermocouples, RTDsSQL Serverhistory and reportsOPC serverenterprise systemsSite alarmsnotificationMonitoringprimary hostfailoverStandby hosttakes over if needed

The problem

Our client stores biological and pharmaceutical materials for its own customers, short and long term, at tightly controlled temperatures. Its storage is protected by backup systems that have backups of their own, and its reputation rests on conditions that never drift, and on clean, complete records that prove it.

The monitoring had to be just as dependable as the storage.

How it grew

The work started as basic temperature monitoring and recording on older National Instruments FieldPoint hardware. Over time it became a precise monitoring system built on several Ethernet-based CompactDAQ chassis, reading arrays of thermocouples and RTDs at strict, configurable intervals.

What we built

  • Precise, configurable sampling: every sensor is read on a strict schedule that the client sets, so the record is consistent from one reading to the next.
  • Custom alarm conditions: the client defines its own alarm thresholds and conditions.
  • Tied into site alarms: the application connects directly to the facility’s other alarm and notification systems, so an out-of-range reading reaches the people who need to act.
  • Data for the whole enterprise: readings are stored in a SQL Server database and published through an OPC server, ready for use in the client’s other enterprise systems.
  • Failover built in: if the machine running the monitoring application goes down for any reason, a secondary machine picks up where it left off.

The result

A continuous, trustworthy temperature record, with no single machine able to interrupt it. The client went on to commission its specimen management system from us as well.