The pump-manufacturing business Kirloskar Brothers Ltd (KBL) announced the launch of KirloSmart, an upgraded version of its renowned IoT (Internet of Things)-based pump monitoring system.

KBL is the first company to commercially launch this solution in 2016 in India after using it in-house at the Kirloskarvadi factory since 2010. KirloSmart is set to further strengthen the first mover advantage to the company.

KirloSmart is a unique hardware-software technology developed by KBL that enables the user to remotely monitor and troubleshoot the pump on a real-time basis without any manual intervention, predict and take corrective measures to prevent any breakdown, and ensure the pump gives optimal performance, Kirloskar Brothers Ltd said in a statement.

This is achieved by transmitting the pump’s analytical field parameters or operational behaviour on KBL’s web-based portal and interactive mobile application (App). In terms of data security, the cloud services are SOC (System and Organisation Controls) compliant.

“The advanced version of KirloSmart has new additional features like enhanced web application and mobile app with user-friendly next generation UI/UX and easy navigation. This is more interactive and has an enhanced speed,” said Alok Kirloskar, Member of the Board of Directors at KBL and Managing Director-SPP Pumps Limited.

“KirloSmart tracks the overall performance of the pump and notifies the user of any degradation in the efficiency or performance. Also, our team of experts at the back end suggests to customers the correction measures to bring the performance on the track. This way, the solution helps to save electricity cost, prevents pump shutdown, and helps to increase the life of pumps,” Kirloskar said.

Energy efficiency is a key concern in the Indian industrial sector as a quarter of the energy consumed by industrial motors is used by pumps. It is estimated that around 75 per cent of pump systems in India are oversized, many by more than 20 per cent. Further, electricity costs account for 40 per cent of the total cost of ownership (TCO) of a pump.

The advanced KirloSmart allows the customer to see multiple trends on a single screen and provides interactive help in troubleshooting. It offers documentation of weekly reports with trends, observations, and recommendations, and gives the customer access to the pump installation and operating manual, the company said in a statement.