A 1970s boiler brought onto the dashboard

Background

A heavy manufacturing factory has a boiler that predates the facility’s networks. The equipment still has an analog output, but its operation is absent from the systems the team uses to review the rest of the factory. Our integration starts with the signal already available at the boiler.

The problem

The boiler has no network tag or communication protocol that fits the factory’s systems, and the original vendor is no longer available to help. That leaves an operating asset outside the shared view. The team needs a way to read its behaviour without making the existing controls part of the integration work.

How we found it

We read the existing analog output through a transmitter and an industrial gateway with local buffering. Firing-rate and gas-flow trends bring the boiler’s operation into view over time. The connection uses what the asset can already provide, so the monitoring has a defined signal to work from rather than depending on a replacement control system.

What changed

The boiler appears on the same dashboard as the other equipment. Its controls remain untouched. The team can review how it is firing and follow the gas-flow trend alongside the rest of the facility’s readings. An asset that was missing from the monitoring view now has an operating history available for review.

The lesson

We check an older asset’s available outputs before deciding how to connect it. Here, the existing analog signal provides a route into the dashboard, with the gateway handling the connection. Keeping the monitoring separate from the controls lets the team gain visibility into the boiler while continuing to operate it through the equipment already in place.