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Smart Speedgates management saves money and results in satisfied customers
Allows customers to predict, prevent and immediately know what’s going on and who needs to take action in up to 70 percent of Speedgate failures in car parks. This has been made possible by monitoring 150 Speedgate parameters. The Internet of Things technology has allowed for new types of management and maintenance.
Text: Peter Bekkering
Speedgates are always involved with providing vehicle access. They’re used in parking facilities, but also in security environments like courts and barracks. In design versions in facades, but often also in fencing, for example in industrial estates or harbour areas. They’re sometimes used for night closures, but usually for full and continuous use.
The most important requirements a Speedgate needs to satisfy are reliability and security, according to Stefan Morssink, Business Innovation Manager at HTC parking & security since January 2015: “Continuity is of great importance, particularly in car parks. After all, any disruptions can equate to a loss of income. Plus safety is truly essential with usage during the day and night. If your Speedgate doesn’t work, that means your car park is left unprotected.” He mentions another safety aspect: “Speedgates are, by definition, installed on the boundaries of private and public land. There will always be lots of people and playing children at car parks, with all the associated risks.” HTC parking & security adheres by the strict requirements set by the German TÜV inspection, in addition to the NEN-EN13241-1, in order to guarantee safety and carries out force measurements on security sensors during all maintenance activities.
Nevertheless, the company still wanted to further improve the Speedgate for parking facilities with the Xense. Morssink: “There were three reasons for this. First of all, the changing world, where people are now getting more and more used to having everything instantly available and accessible via their smartphone. People expect the same with professional equipment. And secondly, the rise of Smart Maintenance. Instead of carrying out preventive and interim corrective maintenance activities once a year, the aim is now to prevent corrective maintenance by correctly predicting faults (‘predictive maintenance’). We’re hoping this switch from corrective to predictive will prevent 70 percent of faults. Plus, in addition to the annual preventive service, it will mean almost no more downtime”. Thirdly, we’ve clearly recognised the fact that we can make management much more effective for many parties in the parking world, making sure management costs and the Speedgate’s Total Cost of Ownership become cheaper. We have conducted extensive research with municipalities, HOA managers and commercial management parties in order to provide what parties really need. We specifically looked at how you can integrate “remote management” into a professional parking organisation with Jochem Somers (Technical Operations Manager) from Q-park. In addition to the aforementioned prevention of downtime through predictive maintenance, having immediate knowledge at your disposal that a “safety device” is displaying deviant behaviour, like remaining open at night, is essential. We’re also expecting to be able to completely filter out incorrect error messages by users and to reduce the lead time of repairs by days in the event of a fault and collision. It also needs to be possible to reduce the deployment of external parties by, for example, helping to make their own service organisation more effective. In addition, the Speedgate data will help management parties to analyse user behaviour and organise the car park more effectively. All of this should help HTC parking & security make the switch from a satisfactory completion to satisfied users. “We want to use this to get a better handle on the user experience. By users I mean the end users, the servicing and maintenance parties, as well as our partners abroad. An impressive 150 parameters can be monitored in the gate thanks to the technology built into the Xense speedgate. “This allows us to see whether the properties of individual actuators and sensors are changing. For example, we’ll be able to see whether a photocell simply needs cleaning, or whether it actually needs to be replaced.
Such a remote diagnosis will also immediately indicate who can carry out the maintenance activities: the user himself, the first-line service party or the specialist and to possibly provide that party with remote assistance” All new Xentry Speedgates to be delivered will be equipped with the Xense Core, the digital base module, with effect from 1st October. “Service engineers can use this module with a connection tool to help them conduct maintenance activities. Users also have the option of taking out a Xense service subscription. The Speedgate will then be connected to the Internet in a highly secure manner, making the range of described options available to prevent downtime and to be able to quickly and effectively resolve any possible faults. This has made Speedgates so reliable that we’re installing these with a 5 year guarantee.”
The technology in the Xense also makes other services possible. The installation of a small camera in the gate offers the possibility of combining video images with data from sensors. “When the speedgate suffers a fault, we can irrefutably establish what happened and who or what caused it.” This will help managers to effectively deal with damage cases with insurance companies and subsequently recover damages from the perpetrator.
In short, the use of Xense technology on Xentry Speedgates helps to remotely manage car parks more effectively and therefore be more highly appreciated by the parking motorist and service employees.
I More information: www.htc-ps.com
