Best of LinkedIn: Connected Tools & Equipment CW 35/ 36

00:00:00: Yeah,

00:00:22: so if you manage a site or facility today You already know the noise out there is completely deafening, right?

00:00:29: Oh absolutely.

00:00:30: There's just so much information flying around

00:00:32: exactly.

00:00:33: So our mission for this deep dive is to you know cut rate through that noise.

00:00:37: We're pulling at the most critical trends and connected tools in equipment That surfaced across linkedin over the last two weeks.

00:00:43: Right The stuff you actually need to pay attention too.

00:00:45: And I think uh To really understand where This Is all heading we have to start on the ground like right in the hands of the operators.

00:00:52: Right on the floor?

00:00:53: Yeah, because historically there was this massive trade-off for you on a job site.

00:00:57: You could either have cordless mobility or you can have corded power.

00:01:02: Right, you could never have both.

00:01:03: Never Both!

00:01:04: But looking at the posts from these last couple weeks I mean that line is totally disappearing.

00:01:09: Steve Vann highlighted this perfectly.

00:01:11: he pointed out that Bosch Professional is rolling out over three hundred new products.

00:01:15: That's a massive rollout.

00:01:17: It Is and one really stands out as their expert eighteen v angle grinder.

00:01:22: Listen to This.

00:01:23: it pushes twenty seven hundred watts on just two batteries.

00:01:27: Wow Two batteries.

00:01:29: Yeah, I mean that is raw heavy-duty corded power completely untethered.

00:01:34: It's just staggering.

00:01:36: it really is and you know That kind of power evolution?

00:01:39: And doesn't just happen in a vacuum.

00:01:40: it builds on these really deep engineering legacies.

00:01:43: Oh definitely

00:01:43: like Steve McClendon posted about Hillture as TE-E-A-twenty two cordless rotary hammer which is a beast of a tool.

00:01:51: But the really fascinating part was the context that Eson Gol Mohammadi added to that thread.

00:01:56: What did he say?

00:01:57: Well, he pointed out this tool actually extends a lineage that dates all the way back to

00:02:02: nineteen sixty-four.

00:02:03: Wait!

00:02:03: Nineteen sixty

00:02:03: four?!

00:02:03: Yeah yeah... Back to the Torneas.

00:02:04: Seven Sixty Five.

00:02:05: so I mean we're looking at sixty years of iterative engineering.

00:02:09: they perfected the hammer mechanism on cords for decades and now battery discharge rates have finally caught up.

00:02:17: That is incredible.

00:02:18: And you see that exact same leap happening across all different trades, right?

00:02:23: Like Beverly Roberts Matthews brought up DeWalt's six new cordless carpentry tools.

00:02:28: Oh!

00:02:28: Right the precision tools

00:02:30: exactly.

00:02:30: they're designed specifically for high-end Precision.

00:02:33: so get these perfect clean plunge cuts without worrying about a chord snagging and ruining The finish

00:02:39: which Is the ultimate nightmare.

00:02:40: in finished Carpentry it

00:02:42: totally is.

00:02:42: but then On the completely opposite end of the spectrum where it's all about raw heavy-duty power, Craig Mullins highlighted the Husqvarna FS seven thousand TL flat saw.

00:02:52: Oh

00:02:52: I saw that post.

00:02:53: yeah It delivers seventy four point three horsepower.

00:02:55: That's just wild for a flat saw!

00:02:57: It is.

00:02:57: and on this amplified power directly impacts workforce productivity.

00:03:01: oh hundred percent actually changes entire biomechanics at job.

00:03:05: Sean W posted about the max twenty rebar tying tools.

00:03:09: Tying rebars brutal work

00:03:10: It's awful.

00:03:11: it absolutely destroys your wrist over a career, but by automating that with the battery powered tool The skilled iron workers can actually focus on specialty ties

00:03:19: right?

00:03:20: The complex stuff

00:03:21: exactly instead of just burning out their joints on repetitive strain.

00:03:24: That makes so much sense.

00:03:26: and Daniel Piefits Gerald made a really similar point about Milwaukee's M-A team cutters

00:03:31: for the electrical contractors.

00:03:32: Yeah Exactly he noted how drastically it cuts down the installation time But it also preserves the worker's energy.

00:03:40: So, with grinders hitting twenty-seven hundred watts on batteries are we officially at the point where the corded consistency versus battery mobilities debate is dead?

00:03:50: or does charging logistics in a multi shift site still give cords to edge?

00:03:54: Well that's the multimillion dollar question isn't it.

00:03:56: I mean tool power debates basically done and the battery won but the logistical headache of charging hundreds of batteries on massive sites...that was very real bottleneck!

00:04:06: Right you just traded one problem for another

00:04:08: Exactly, which actually leads perfectly into the next huge theme we saw.

00:04:12: Because now that you have these incredibly powerful completely untethered tools your immediate challenge is just tracking them.

00:04:19: Oh

00:04:20: finding them on a million square foot site Right

00:04:22: and asset tagging.

00:04:23: it's finally moving away from those dusty old spreadsheets And moving in to dynamic digital workflows.

00:04:29: Thank goodness because The Old Way was not working.

00:04:33: Tejas Vijapura posted a really great guide on this, specifically about Bluetooth low energy or BLE asset tracking.

00:04:41: That was a great breakdown!

00:04:42: It really was and the crucial insight he shared is that it's the infrastructure cost not the price of the actual tag that drives the choice between BLE, GPS or RFID.

00:04:52: Because it's a wiring

00:04:53: right?

00:04:53: Exactly!

00:04:54: BLE gateways don't need all that expensive cabling.

00:04:57: run through your facility

00:04:58: which is huge and we are seeing real-world deployments proving this out like Avon Apache.

00:05:02: share this amazing example where iTrack PPE installed Zebra RFID readers across twenty one different South Yorkshire fire stations while

00:05:10: twenty one stations

00:05:12: yeah And they did it to completely automate their PPE tracking.

00:05:15: So no more manual logs for critical safety gear.

00:05:18: and then Mads Havegard Mickelson showcased another system, AssetGuardTE.

00:05:23: Oh what was that one do?

00:05:24: It uses QR tags so a facility manager can just scan a boiler or an HVAC unit and it instantly surfaces the entire service history on their phone.

00:05:34: See, that is the kind of immediate visibility that changes everything.

00:05:37: And by the way if you want to keep catching these exact kinds of insights make sure to hit subscribe on this deep dive so don't miss future editions!

00:05:44: Good call but before we get too swept up in the magic of QR codes and perfect data... We have to look at reality.

00:05:50: most people are actually dealing with.

00:05:52: Oh the messy reality.

00:05:53: yes Dr.

00:05:55: Tobias Will posted a serious reality check about inheriting the one-thousand entry lab asset register

00:06:01: The dreaded, messy spreadsheet.

00:06:03: It's a nightmare.

00:06:04: He was talking about duplicate scan codes.

00:06:06: You know free text location fields where nothing matches Equipment

00:06:09: that was thrown out three years ago still showing up

00:06:12: Exactly, it's just chaos.

00:06:14: Cleaning up an asset register is like untangling a massive extension cord.

00:06:19: You don't just throw it away and start from scratch.

00:06:22: as the post pointed out you find The central knot first which means fixing the location fields before you even worry about deduplicating serial numbers.

00:06:31: That is exactly right because once you actually figure out where your assets are?

00:06:39: Condition monitoring.

00:06:40: Yes, and condition monitoring is moving way beyond just slapping a basic vibration sensor on the motor.

00:06:45: in calling it today.

00:06:46: It's getting highly contextual and completely wire free.

00:06:50: But Vibration data can be super tricky right?

00:06:52: Oh its incredibly nuanced.

00:06:54: Emily Kan actually pointed this out.

00:06:56: She noted that vibration displays on systems like VM-Six hundred Chains entirely based how you filter and scale the data Like

00:07:02: difference between RMS and peak to peak

00:07:04: Exactly!

00:07:05: If look at the wrong metric A failing machine looks perfectly healthy And Donald Murphy stressed this too.

00:07:11: He said there's a desperate need for strict, standard operating procedures around sensor placement

00:07:16: because if you mount it wrong the data is garbage.

00:07:19: pretty

00:07:19: much

00:07:20: yeah and sometimes taking your reading on a fixed timer is just as bad.

00:07:24: julian michelle posted this brilliant kind of contrarian warning about overhead cranes.

00:07:30: oh the timer based sensors?

00:07:32: Yeah He said timer-based wireless sensors fail on cranes because the structural faults usually only appear when the crane is actually under load.

00:07:40: Right, if you take a sample and the crane's empty... ...you miss the actual physics of lift!

00:07:45: Exactly which.

00:07:47: why the latest innovations are so focused on getting continuous context without wires.

00:07:52: Yeah like what Drew Boling highlighted he talked about a Schaeffler opi time wireless mesh that was installed in a marine vessel

00:07:59: On ship.

00:08:00: That's a tough environment.

00:08:01: Extremely

00:08:02: tough, but they installed it in mere hours with zero cabling.

00:08:05: Oh wow just a few hours.

00:08:07: Yeah because it builds its own mesh network.

00:08:09: But you know Gary Williams posted about something that takes it even a step further.

00:08:13: Artesis technology.

00:08:15: Okay

00:08:15: I saw this one the electrical signature analysis.

00:08:18: Yes It uses electrical signature analyses to read pump curves directly from the electrical panel.

00:08:24: So no physical sensors on the pump itself?

00:08:27: Zero You don't have to mount anything asset in the wet environment.

00:08:32: That

00:08:32: is wild, and Adrian Boyd actually backed up this whole trend.

00:08:36: he built a digital twin test bench that proved electrical signals alone can detect early pump cavitation

00:08:43: just from the current draw?

00:08:44: Just from the panel?

00:08:45: yeah.

00:08:45: so I have to ask if we could detect early cavitation and map pump curves.

00:08:49: yep purely from the electrical panel.

00:08:51: are physical vibration sensors destined to become obsolete or Is there a blind spot here?

00:08:56: We aren't seeing.

00:08:57: It's a really good question, but no they definitely aren't obsolete.

00:09:01: Because context is everything.

00:09:03: Well Goose Stunham shared the story that answers this perfectly.

00:09:06: He talked about rolling mills with terrible abnormal motor vibration.

00:09:10: Was it bad bearing?

00:09:11: Nope!

00:09:11: It wasn't mechanical failure at all...it was process issue.

00:09:15: They fixed just by reducing the mill speed from four hundred and seventy to four hundred twenty feet per minute.

00:09:20: Oh so environment caused vibrations

00:09:22: Exactly.

00:09:23: An electrical signature might just show a load variance, but you need the physical sensor to understand external mechanical context.

00:09:30: Got it!

00:09:31: So they both have their place?

00:09:32: Definitely

00:09:33: But none of this—the tags and sensors or wireless mesh—it generates an actual return on investment unless it feeds into a unified enterprise system

00:09:43: Right….

00:09:43: The data has actually go somewhere useful.

00:09:47: We need IT operations.

00:09:49: stop fighting and co-own the data And we are seeing that convergence happen.

00:09:54: Bear Josie shared a great example of a real-time asset visibility layer, which was built jointly by IT and plan operations.

00:10:01: That's rare but so necessary.

00:10:04: It really is because when you do that You find the hidden problems.

00:10:07: Liam Ritchie made this point about how identical machine availability numbers can actually hide constant microstops.

00:10:13: Oh!

00:10:13: The jams take under thirty seconds to clear?

00:10:16: Yes...the

00:10:17: operators are exhausted But the spreadsheet looks fine But tools like Smart Sites AVE Lee are actually catching those automatically

00:10:23: now.

00:10:24: And when you scale that kind of automatic unified data up to the enterprise level, You inevitably run into AI?

00:10:30: Of course

00:10:31: it always comes back to AI.

00:10:32: right now

00:10:33: It does.

00:10:33: Andy Dawson discussed how platforms like Microsoft, Fabric and Foundry are processing over one million IoT events an hour.

00:10:41: A million in an hour?

00:10:42: Yeah!

00:10:42: And they're doing it to predict massive oil and gas shutdowns before they happen... ...and then Justin Gancha took even further.

00:10:50: he predict that AI co-pilots will soon turn telemetry from a thousand eight hundred forty active rigs into real time intelligence to augment drilling engineers.

00:10:59: That is insane amount of data to process bringing it back to physical reality.

00:11:04: for a second, Tracy DeLue posted really crucial supply chain warning about all this.

00:11:09: About

00:11:09: the chips right?

00:11:10: Yeah she pointed out that AI data centers are currently absorbing seventy percent of memory chip output.

00:11:15: they're completely squeezing out industrial buyers.

00:11:18: so we are building these massive AI systems to optimize our manufacturing.

00:11:22: but is there insatiable appetite from memory chips going to cannibalize the very supply chains?

00:11:28: it is a massive risk.

00:11:30: It's exactly like the twenty-twenty one auto chip crisis all over again and I think its perfect reminder that we have to connect.

00:11:41: How so?

00:11:42: Well, Henrik N issued a really smart warning about this.

00:11:45: He noted that better technology like incredibly sharp reversing cameras on heavy equipment can actually create false confidence

00:11:52: if the operator stops checking their physical blind spots.

00:11:55: exactly If we don't map the actual fleet blindspots and train the workers The tech just makes them complacent

00:12:00: right bellow getting made of very similar point The goal of a connected digital tool belt is supposed to be shortening training curves And augmenting the worker not doing the thinking for them.

00:12:12: Precisely,

00:12:12: and that actually leaves us with a really fascinating question to think about.

00:12:17: If our tools sensors in enterprise systems become perfectly connected and self-diagnosing what happens?

00:12:22: To the institutional knowledge of The Operator?

00:12:25: when the system tells you exactly What's wrong every time?

00:12:28: do we risk losing the instinct Of the technician who used it?

00:12:31: just listen to the hum of the machine And know exactly how to fix It.

00:12:34: if you enjoyed this episode new episodes drop Every two weeks.

00:12:37: Also check out our other editions on Robotics, Smart Manufacturing and Industrial AI & Digital Construction.

00:12:43: Thank you so much for listening – don't forget to subscribe!