The challenge

In the Pulp and Paper industry it is commonly the high downtime cost that drives the maintenance and reliability teams. Although we should not forget that running with non-optimal conditions might also impact productivity significantly.

It is typical to have a monitoring system for the core process, but what often gets overlooked is the supporting machinery. Process supporting rotating machinery are usually inspected and monitored manually with either route- or time-based intervals. There are several reasons for this, including cost of available on-line monitoring systems or the limitations of existing ones.

Maintenance teams are typically stressed with prioritization of preventive tasks, reactive tasks, manual inspections and efficiency requirements. This is understandable as there are a lot of rotating machinery usually spread out over the entire large pulp and paper facility.

Simplifying the monitoring challenge

In the past, advanced RM-systems were not cost efficient enough to be used for supporting machines. The condence.io technology and architecture have changed this equation radically. Majority of rotating machines like gearboxes, pumps, fans, conveyors, compressors and spreader rolls can be now monitored automatically at an acceptable cost. In case there is a need for a closer look, the modern remote monitoring solutions enable drilling down manually to the core of the problem, independent of time and place, anywhere in the world.  

The decision to service or repair is not always easy, as timing and demand challenge the total repair cost vs. risk of downtime. When using an on-line monitoring system also for the supporting equipment, it is possible to have both a holistic view of the operations and a transparent, close to real-time view on the specific machinery, thus allowing a proper lead time for repairs. Decision making is then based on real statistically valid and comparable data, not only on intermittent manual measurements. Better planning and view forward also contributes to better spare parts inventory management.

The benefits

The most obvious benefit of modern remote condition monitoring for pulp and paper is increased uptime. There are several other benefits at various levels of the operations. Optimizing the condition monitoring process itself will improve the maintenance organisations productivity. By automating the monitoring and thus buying a longer lead time, spare part inventories can be reduced and the organisation between on-site and on-line reorganized. Professionals spend less time on transition, bureaucracy and logistics and more on high value add tasks.

The majority of players within the industry have a lot of data. The relevance of this data or the required amount of work to prepare this data for statistical analysis (AI) is commonly a challenge. Condence can offer raw data as well as other metrics and labelled data for post-processing purposes in addition to advanced tools for analysis in one end-to-end productized flexible solution.

See links below.

Partners:

Willards – partner in sweden

DB santasalo Gearwatch – general

Solutions:

• Gears
• Pumps
• Oil