SMARTLINK Alerts: Which Compressor Data Should a Plant Team Act On?

A SMARTLINK alert reaches the plant team during a full production shift. Before anyone responds, the team needs to know whether the underlying condition threatens compressed air supply, machine health, product quality or a defined site limit.

Anglian Compressors, a Branch of Atlas Copco Compressors, recommends triaging SMARTLINK compressor monitoring data against process consequences. A shutdown, rising discharge temperature or pressure loss may demand immediate intervention. Service reminders and energy trends usually support planned work. Air quality alarms require their own route because standard compressor telemetry doesn’t prove compliance with an ISO 8573 purity class.

Start With the Operating Consequence

SMARTLINK brings machine events, maintenance requirements and operating data into one connected view. Depending on the equipment, sensors and SMARTLINK service level, the available information can include operating pressure, temperature, running hours, equipment status, energy performance and service history.

The manufacturer’s SMARTLINK product explanation (atlascopco.com) distinguishes between Service, Uptime and Energy functions. Event notifications and self-defined warnings depend on the configured package and connected equipment, so two sites may not receive the same information.

An alert is urgent when the measured condition threatens production, equipment protection or a site-defined quality limit.

That means the same pressure warning can justify different responses. A packaging machine experiencing falling actuation force may require immediate investigation. A small pressure deviation on a duty-and-standby installation may allow time for controlled diagnosis, provided the standby unit is carrying demand and the process minimum remains protected.

The notification shows the team where to look. Engineering judgement decides what happens next.

A Practical SMARTLINK Alert Priority Matrix

Use the following matrix as a first response framework for air compressor alarm monitoring. Your site operating procedure, equipment manual, risk assessment and process specification take precedence over a generic table.

SMARTLINK Data or Event	Typical Priority	Plant Team Response
Compressor shutdown or critical controller event	Immediate	Confirm which machine stopped, check available standby capacity and follow the site’s shutdown or escalation procedure
Rapidly rising discharge or element temperature	Immediate or urgent	Review the live trend and associated warnings, check cooling conditions and arrange engineering inspection
Header pressure below the process minimum	Immediate	Verify the reading, check demand and connected machines, then protect affected production
High pressure dew point or contaminant alarm from connected air quality equipment	Immediate on purity-sensitive lines	Follow the quality response plan, assess affected air and investigate dryers, drains and filtration
Motor overload, phase or electrical protection event	Immediate	Keep the affected machine out of uncontrolled restart and refer the event to authorised electrical or service personnel
Communication loss from a critical machine	Urgent	Restore monitoring coverage and use documented manual checks until visibility returns
Service due or maintenance requirement	Planned priority	Review remaining hours, production windows and required parts, then schedule the work
Increasing unloaded hours, load cycles or specific energy consumption	Planned investigation	Compare the trend with demand, sequencing, pressure settings and leakage
Stable efficiency recommendation with no operational alarm	Improvement work	Review during the next energy or maintenance meeting

Don’t clear an event simply because the machine restarted. Record what changed before, during and after the alert. A recurring warning separated by several apparently normal shifts often provides more diagnostic value than the final shutdown message.

Which Machine Alerts Need Immediate Attention?

Shutdowns and Electrical Protection Events

A shutdown is the clearest priority because compressed air capacity has already been removed. Check the operating state of the remaining machines, available receiver capacity and the demand on critical processes before focusing on the failed unit.

If the event concerns motor overload, phase loss or another electrical protection function, don’t repeatedly reset the compressor to see whether it holds. Preserve the controller event, isolate the machine under the site’s safe system of work and involve authorised personnel. The protective function has operated for a reason.

Operating context changes the consequence. A waste handling site with abrasive material and continuous sorting demand faces a different recovery decision from a workshop with intermittent tools. Our page on air compressors for recycling plants shows how duty and environment shape system design, but the plant’s own redundancy plan still decides whether production can continue.

Rising Temperature

Treat a rapid temperature rise, repeated high-temperature warning or temperature event combined with oil or cooling symptoms as urgent. Review the trend rather than relying on a single value. A stable reading that reflects ambient conditions is different from a value climbing through consecutive load cycles.

High temperature can be associated with restricted cooling, poor ventilation, lubricant condition or another machine fault. SMARTLINK narrows the time window and shows the operating pattern. It doesn’t authorise a diagnosis without inspecting the machine and its installation.

Pressure Loss and Instability

Pressure deserves immediate attention when it drops below the minimum required at the process. Verify the controller value against the local instrumentation, then check whether the problem is confined to one machine or visible across the header.

A pressure drop can reflect lost compressor capacity, a sudden demand increase, a large leak, a closed valve or excessive distribution loss. If the readings disagree, our guide to understanding air compressor pressure gauges explains how gauge location and pressure behaviour affect diagnosis.

Don’t raise the discharge pressure as the first response. That may mask the symptom while increasing power demand and loading the whole system harder.

Air Quality Alerts and ISO 8573 Need Separate Handling

SMARTLINK data from the compressor alone doesn’t establish the system’s ISO 8573 purity class. Part 1 of the ISO 8573 compressed air standard (iso.org) specifies purity classes for particles, water and oil. The class required at each point of use comes from the process specification and the site’s quality controls.

Standard compressor information such as running hours and discharge temperature can indicate conditions worth investigating, but it cannot prove particle, water and oil performance at the production line.

When SMARTLINK Carries Air Quality Measurements

The position changes when the installation includes dedicated air quality monitoring connected to SMARTLINK. Anglian’s parent manufacturer describes an Air Quality Monitor that measures particles, pressure dew point and oil vapour, stores the results and makes them available through SMARTLINK. Users can configure alarm points for specified contaminant limits, as explained in the Air Quality Monitor overview (atlascopco.com).

On a food, beverage, pharmaceutical or other purity-sensitive line, an alarm showing that a monitored value has crossed the site limit needs prompt quality and engineering review. The immediate response should follow the site’s documented plan and may include:

• Identifying the affected compressor, dryer, air treatment train and points of use.
• Preserving the alarm time, measured value and preceding trend.
• Checking dryer status, drains, differential pressure and relevant filter service condition.
• Protecting potentially affected production according to the site quality procedure.
• Arranging appropriate air quality testing before declaring the supply back within specification.

A high dew point alarm doesn’t prove that particles or oil are also outside limits. The three contaminant categories require their own evidence.

Continuous Data Doesn’t Remove the Need for Testing

Connected monitoring improves visibility between periodic checks. It doesn’t remove calibration requirements, sampling plans or the need to interpret measurements at the correct point in the system.

Sampling at the compressor room may not describe air quality after a long distribution run, a local receiver or point-of-use pipework. The same principle applies to food producers such as Masteroast.

There’s also an unresolved boundary here. A plant’s contractual purity requirement, hazard analysis and customer audit criteria may demand action before a general monitoring threshold is crossed. The correct limit must come from the site specification, not a default dashboard setting.

What Can Move Into Planned Maintenance?

A service reminder normally requires scheduling rather than an emergency stop. Review the remaining operating hours, maintenance scope, parts availability and the next suitable production window. If the reminder becomes overdue or appears alongside temperature, pressure or condition warnings, raise its priority.

Running-hour imbalance across a multi-compressor installation also deserves attention. One machine accumulating hours while another remains lightly used may indicate sequencing problems, unavailable equipment or a control setting that no longer matches demand. The machine may still be producing air, but the maintenance plan and lifecycle cost are drifting away from the intended duty split.

Energy and usage alerts usually support structured investigation. Rising unloaded hours, increased load cycles or worsening specific energy consumption can point towards poor sequencing, leakage, excessive pressure or a changed demand profile. Compare equivalent shifts and production states before drawing a conclusion.

For a full-system view, our guide to how the Atlas Copco AIRchitect report works explains how logged demand and system modelling turn trends into engineering recommendations. A free energy audit can then establish whether the issue sits in generation, control, distribution or point-of-use demand.

Build a Repeatable Alert Response

A plant team needs one response method that works at 2am and during the Monday maintenance meeting. Use six steps.

• Acknowledge and preserve the event. Record the machine, time, event code, measured value, notification route and operating state. Don’t erase the evidence by clearing every warning immediately.
• Verify the condition. Compare SMARTLINK with the local controller, gauges and any independent instrument relevant to the alert. For air quality, confirm which dedicated sensor produced the reading and whether its calibration remains current.
• Assess the process consequence. Determine whether the site is losing capacity, falling below minimum pressure, exposing a purity-sensitive process or operating without required monitoring. Check duty-and-standby status before deciding whether production can continue.
• Make the system safe. Follow the site isolation, electrical safety and quality procedures. Don’t bypass a shutdown, alter alarm limits or repeatedly restart a machine without understanding the event.
• Escalate with usable information. Send the event code, trend graph, machine model, serial number, operating hours, recent service history and any physical observations. “Compressor fault” wastes the first part of a service call.
• Close the loop. Record the cause, corrective work and evidence used to return the machine or air supply to service. If the event recurs, the history should show whether the same component, setting or process condition is involved.

This approach turns the dashboard into a maintenance record rather than a stream of notifications that everybody assumes somebody else has read.

When Anglian Compressors Should Review the Data

Escalate an alert when your team cannot verify the cause, when the event repeats, when standby capacity is limited or when air quality may have moved outside the site specification.

Our engineers can review the SMARTLINK event history, controller data, service records and operating trends before attending site. Depending on the fault, the next action may involve a repair, dryer or filtration inspection, flow monitoring, leak detection, air quality testing or a wider AIRchitect assessment.

For a useful first review, provide the machine model and serial number, alert code, screenshots or exported trend data, time of occurrence, production state, required discharge pressure and details of any purity class or pressure dew point limit. Include recent maintenance and any changes to demand, ventilation or downstream equipment.

If your plant in the East of England or surrounding regions has a recurring SMARTLINK alert, send those details to Anglian Compressors through the form below. We’ll identify whether the event needs immediate attendance, planned corrective work or further measurement before anyone changes the system.