Henkel is creating added value for its customers with digital LOCTITE^® Pulse solutions

Düsseldorf, Germany – In October 2021, Henkel Adhesive Technologies, a global leader in adhesives, sealants and functional coatings, introduced LOCTITE Pulse, an Industrial Internet-of-Things (IoT) solution that contributes to the reliability of critical assets. Once installed in your critical assets, LOCTITE Pulse sensors continuously collect data and provide valuable insights into asset health.

The first solution, LOCTITE Pulse Smart Flange Leak Detection, can detect early leakages and may be able to predict serious incidents. Critical assets can be monitored with a smart app and notifications are sent when irregularities are detected. This enables operators to act in a timely manner, significantly decreasing the risks of growing leaks to both operations and the environment and contributing to sustainability.

Major customers in the oil and gas and chemical industries, such as Shell or H&R Group, have already installed the solution in their plants and are benefiting from intelligent monitoring.

H&R Group is a leading German manufacturer of mineral oil specialties. One of the challenges it faced was the numerous critical flanges to be monitored during production. Since the majority of these critical flanges are located under insulation or in difficult-to-access areas, visual inspection required significant effort and was often carried out at insufficient intervals and in inadequate quality. With the help of LOCTITE Pulse Smart Flange, critical flanges are now continuously monitored, enabling the detection of possible leaks at an early stage. This avoids costly repairs and unplanned downtime, while also providing an additional level of safety. For Jan Hendrik Graef, Head of Operations at H&R, one fact is crucial: “I now have an overview of the plant at all times and all locations.”

The use case at Shell is similar. The Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rheinland is one of the largest chemical and energy sites in Germany. Dr. Michael Hansen, Engineering Manager at Shell, states: “In the past, the monitoring of our pipes and flanges was very complex and costly.” Fabian van Straelen, Senior Asset Inspector at Shell, adds: “In particular around road junctions, we have a large number of assets which require an efficient and reliable monitoring solution.” With the help of LOCTITE Pulse, these critical assets can now be continuously monitored, and potential leaks can be detected at an early stage. Dr. Michael Hansen highlights: “We are particularly impressed by three advantages of the Henkel solution: the simple and fast installation, the fact that leaks can be precisely localized and the possibility of rapid scaling.”

“With LOCTITE Pulse Smart Flange, we have brought a solution to market that helps our customers address a problem for which they previously had no suitable solution. We help them to create an additional level of safety and at the same time support them in reducing expenses and increasing uptime,” explains Dr. Michael Honné, Head of MRO 4.0/Industry 4.0 at Henkel Adhesive Technologies. He adds “IoT, especially smart maintenance, is an important future growth area in which Henkel is consciously investing. Smart Flange represents just the first of many solutions that will soon follow. Our goal is to offer our customers a broad portfolio of data-driven solutions under the LOCTITE Pulse brand.”

Dr. Kourosh Bahrami, Corporate Vice President, General Manufacturing and Maintenance, Henkel Adhesive Technologies concludes: “As a global leader in adhesives, sealants, and functional coating solutions, we already enable our customers to minimize downtime, increase efficiency and extend equipment lifetime. With LOCTITE Pulse, we are taking the next logical step by offering our customers this digital and data-enabled portfolio of smart maintenance solutions that will elevate operational efficiency and sustainability to the next level. LOCTITE Pulse Smart Flange is the first piece of the great vision that we’re all striving for. We see Loctite Pulse’s digital solutions as an opportunity to simplify, improve and add real value to our customers’ operations. As our successes at Shell and H&R have outlined, we are creating substantial value for our customers.”

The LOCTITE Pulse solutions are installed in several of our own plants and are showcased among others at our Persil and Pritt production as well as in our Henkel Adhesive Inspiration Center Düsseldorf. In the inspiration center our customers can attend a demonstration of the sensor technology and Loctite Pulse app during their visit. The customer journey then continues in the Lighthouses (Persil and Pritt production sites in Düsseldorf) where Henkel can share how Loctite Pulse technology monitors assets in-house.

LOCTITE^®Pulse - Henkel Adhesives (henkel-adhesives.com)

LOCTITE^® is a registered trademark of Henkel and/or its affiliates in Germany and elsewhere.

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