Predictive maintenance today represents a fundamental tool to ensure the safety and longevity of infrastructures, especially in a context where action is too often taken only after critical situations or emergencies have occurred.
In this article, we will recount the specific case of a monitoring intervention carried out with our innovative SHBox system inside a school building located in the Turin hinterland, which made it possible to check the health of the structure and subsequently prompted the city council to build a new school building.
Installation of the SHBox System
Once we received the request for monitoring the school infrastructure from the municipality, and following an initial inspection by our team led by a structural engineer, we developed a monitoring design that took into account the complexity and criticality of the building.
The installation of Sysdev’s patented SHBox System involved the placement of around twenty multi-sensor nodes distributed in various strategic locations: from the foundations to the load-bearing walls; with special attention given to the basement, where the school canteen was located, and the two upper floors of the building.
The monitoring went on for approximately three years. During this period, the SHBox system continuously collected data key infrastructure parameters (such as vibrations, oscillations, temperature variations and structural displacements). The data, transmitted via the LoRa network to Sysdev’s cloud platform, was then processed to highlight critical issues.
Predictive Structure Monitoring
Although no particularly critical events occurred during the monitoring period, the system nevertheless revealed some significant anomalies. In particular, during a period in which there had been a massive movement of some heavy furniture inside the school, the sensors recorded noteworthy expansions of the load-bearing beams, which subsequently returned to normal parameters.
This type of analysis emphasised how crucial continuous monitoring is to detect not only immediate problems, but also precursor signs of potential future risks.
The monitoring experience thus had a significant impact, as the municipality decided to start planning and building a new school, adjacent to the one monitored. This step was motivated by the importance of ensuring an even safer environment for students.
The advantages of the SHBox system for infrastructure
Thanks to the advanced technology of our SHBox system, it is possible:
- Monitor in real time the fundamental parameters that guarantee the robustness of an infrastructure.
- Preventing structural risks through early identification of anomalies.
- Support the planning of future interventions to improve safety.
The case shown in this article is a tangible example of how technology and predictive culture can have a significant impact.
This intervention represents, in fact, a virtuous example in a panorama where, unfortunately, predictive maintenance is still undervalued by many companies and institutions. Too often, it is preferred to intervene only after emergencies have occurred, with much higher costs and risks.