North Star BlueScope's Orion Weather Station


Kelly Masell of North Star BlueScope with the Weather MicroServer monitoring screen.

When equipment breakdowns happen during manufacturing processes, it’s important for operators to identify the root cause to prevent costly impacts in the future. Kelly Masell is a Package Engineer at North Star BlueScope, a leading supplier in the steel industry based in Ohio. He recently explained how data from an Orion Weather Station installed at the plant is used for their operations:

An Orion Weather Station installed at the plant.
“The system was configured to transfer data via Modbus TCP to an Allen Bradley PLC. This data is then trended in a historical program for data retrieval at any time. If something major happens in the plant, it may be weather related. We can look at the historical trends of temperature, humidity, winds, barometric pressure and more. Columbia Weather data could pinpoint if a weather-related data point was a contributing factor of why the breakdown occurred.” 

Kelly added that it was “very easy to get started” with the system, instructions were “clear and easy to understand,” and he would recommend the system based on: “1. Easy to set up 2. Getting real-time weather data 3. Configurable for remote monitoring on other systems.”

That’s what we like to hear! Our job is to make weather monitoring easy so you can do your job better. If you want to learn more, our team can help you find the best equipment for your needs.  

We’d love to hear your thoughts—like this post and share it if you found it insightful!

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