Solutions
Four links. One chain.
Each area below is a link USS engineers itself. Taken separately they solve a problem; taken together they remove the seams where systems normally fail.
Equipment & facilities integration
Bringing machinery, measurement devices and sensors under one controllable interface — whoever built them.
Standard computer hardware and off-the-shelf software rarely reach far enough into a production or measurement process. Where they stop, we build the missing layer: engineering devices, firmware and interface modules that let a control system speak to the equipment already on site.
The modules are designed to be combined. A site that needs three signal types and one protocol bridge gets exactly that, not a platform it has to grow into. Because the interface layer belongs to us rather than to an equipment vendor, replacing a device later does not mean rebuilding the system around it.
What this includes
- Automated facilities and equipment management
- Interface modules for industrial devices and instrumentation
- Custom engineering hardware where standard IT stops
- Firmware and device-side software
- Manufacturer-independent equipment control
- Modular architecture, assembled per site
Measurement & data acquisition
Getting correct data off the equipment automatically, and moving it without gaps or manual steps.
Decisions made from re-typed numbers are decisions made from someone’s memory. We automate the capture so that readings leave the instrument in a defined format and arrive in storage unchanged — continuously, and without an operator in the middle.
The same acquisition layer carries the evidence that work was performed to procedure: what was measured, by which device, in what order, and when. Protection is designed in at every level, from the physical intake of data at the device to the handling of the full data set inside the customer’s systems.
What this includes
- Automated acquisition from instruments, sensors and equipment
- Continuous, secure transfer to processing or storage
- Format conversion and normalisation at the point of capture
- Verification that work followed the defined procedure
- Actual working-time recording from equipment activity
- Data protection from device intake through to stored records
Monitoring, recognition & information systems
Software that turns a stream of device readings into a current, checkable picture of the process.
Most industrial processes need their state observed continuously rather than sampled by hand. Our monitoring systems collect from a mix of equipment, instrumentation and sensors, process what arrives, and present it as a real-time status image, with the history kept and organised behind it.
Object recognition extends the same idea to properties a keyboard cannot capture. The information system receives output from the recognition equipment, converts it into the required format, processes it, and either returns the result or hands it on for storage — identifying visual characteristics, weight, volume or other physical properties, depending on what the process needs to prove.
What this includes
- Real-time monitoring across mixed equipment estates
- Collection from instrumentation and sensors of any make
- Operational conclusions and forecasts from collected data
- Object recognition: visual properties, weight, volume and other physical measures
- Number and object identification from image data
- Custom information systems built to the customer’s process
Installation, maintenance & metrology
Commissioning on site, then keeping the system correct — including the metrological standing of the equipment.
A system is delivered when it runs on the customer’s floor, not when the code compiles. Installation is a defined sequence: prepare the equipment, configure the transfer path, install and configure the software, test, document, train, hand over.
After handover the relationship continues. Faults are removed, preventive maintenance is carried out in due order, and equipment is updated as requirements or technology change. Where measurements have to stand up to an inspectorate, we take care of the equipment meeting metrological requirements and obtaining the due accreditations.
What this includes
- Six-stage commissioning, from preparation to handover
- Technical maintenance of transfer and processing equipment
- Product support and fault removal for installed software
- Scheduled preventive maintenance and condition review
- Equipment and software updates as requirements change
- Metrological compliance and accreditation support
Index
Everything, in one list.
If what you need is on this list, we have engineering practice in it. If it is next to something on this list, ask.
Industrial data acquisition
Readings taken from equipment automatically, at the moment they occur
Measurement systems
Instruments driven, read and held to a defined procedure
Equipment integration
Mixed-manufacturer estates brought under one interface
Monitoring systems
Real-time status of a process, with history and forecasts
Object recognition
Visual properties, weight, volume and other physical measures identified
Number recognition
Identifiers read from image data and matched to the record
Image and video indexing
Recorded footage synchronised with the measurement output
Custom information systems
Built around the customer’s procedure, not a product’s assumptions
Central databases
One archive that can be produced and defended later
System-to-system transfer
Processed results handed on to the systems that account for them
Resource planning & accounting
Work and the resources it consumes, planned automatically
Data protection
Applied from physical intake at the device to the stored record
On-site installation
Six defined stages, ending in documentation and training
Long-term maintenance
Technical, preventive and corrective, under an agreed scope
Equipment modernisation
Hardware and software updated as requirements change
Metrology & accreditation
Equipment brought to the standard an inspectorate will accept
Not sure which of these your problem is?
Describe the process. We will tell you which parts of the chain are missing and which of them actually need building.