Schaeffler introduces its OPTIME condition monitoring system for rotating machines that were previously uneconomic to monitor in the cement sector.
In order to reduce unplanned downtime, condition monitoring systems play a significant role in the operation of modern cement plants. The solutions inform operators of imminent failures of vertical roller mills, roller presses, vibrating screens and crushers. Oftentimes, however, out of the 2000-plus drives in a cement plant, only process-critical machines are monitored. The reason is that the expectations of a condition monitoring solution have not been met so far. High maintenance costs, as well as additionally-required expertise, have prevented maintenance technicians from using comprehensive condition monitoring solutions. Schaeffler is responding to these needs.
The solution
The solution consists of wireless sensors, a gateway and a digital service. The system is easy to install and can be used without expert knowledge. With the smartphone or desktop app, customers can use OPTIME to keep an eye on the status of their plants at all times, even when hundreds of machines are involved, as reports are processed in a user-friendly manner and prioritised according to criticality.
This is what makes the wireless solution particularly attractive
It takes less than five minutes to install and integrate a sensor. Thanks to Schaeffler’s know-how, system configuration and data analyses are largely automated so that the solution can be employed without any additional qualifications. With OPTIME, maintenance engineers can schedule maintenance measures, personnel deployments and spare part procurement in a timely and cost-effective manner. Unplanned downtime or even plant shutdowns can be reduced significantly.
Case-study: Finnsementti
Finnsementti is a Finnish cement manufacturer and part of the CRH Group. Around 230 people work at its cement plants in Parainen and Lappeenranta. The Finnish cement manufacturer’s main concern is plant downtime. Around 90 machine failures occured every year on average, the majority of which were in auxiliary units. While few of these resulted in a complete plant shutdown, unplanned reactive maintenance interventions were necessary. The most critical units are motors, gearboxes, pumps and fans.
Finnsementti wanted to monitor these, but was also looking for a solution that would provide increased security for its personnel. As many auxiliary units are difficult to access, health and safety becomes an issue. Finnsementti had not previously installed condition monitoring solutions for the purpose of monitoring auxiliary units, as these were too expensive and, for the most part, did not work wirelessly.
For this reason, Finnsementti decided to use Schaeffler OPTIME at its Parainen plant. This wireless solution allows the cement manufacturer to monitor practically every rotating machine at the plant on a largely automated and permanent basis.
The installation, which involved installing around 150 sensors to motors, fan pumps and gearboxes, as well as mounting the gateway, was completed in two days. The mobile app allows hundreds of machines to be monitored directly. A similar system has since been installed at Lappeenranta.
Sensor Parameters
| Vibration bandwidth: | OPTIME-3: 2 Hz – 3 kHz |
| OPTIME-5: 2 Hz – 5 kHz | |
| Calculated parameters: | 7 |
| Sensor commissioning: | NFC |
| Communication: | Wirepas Mesh (2.4GHz ISM Band) |
| Measurement cycle parameters: | Every 4h |
| Time waveform: | Every 24h |
OPTIME example
View the image gallery above for an example of how OPTIME works. While monitoring the fan shown in the previous image, OPTIME triggered a change in the machine status to ‘Suspicious’ (Level 2) and provided several individual alarms for trends.The maintenance team confirmed the accumulation of dirt on the blades of the dust filter fan and performed the cleaning process several times based on the vibration amplitudes measured in OPTIME. Warning level: 1 = Normal, 2 = Suspicious, 3 = Warning, 5 = Severe.
Customer benefits
With the decision to use Schaeffler OPTIME Finnsementti benefits extensively, primarily from:
- Easy and rapid installation of OPTIME components;
- Easy data-reading, with no expert knowledge required;
- Greater security for employees, as access to hard-to-reach machinery is no longer required with the digital service;
- Long-term planning of maintenance measures, personnel requirements, and replacement part procurement;
- Less unplanned downtime.
Customer comment
“OPTIME has a reasonable price and easy installation that enable scaling up the monitoring to a large number of machines in a cement plant,” says Tommy Ranta, Production Director at Finnsementti. “Schaeffler has a broad know-how of condition monitoring and specifically of the machine motion. We appreciate that very much.”
Cement Production Manager Toni Virtanen adds, “With OPTIME our maintenance staff have the transparency over the condition of most of our machines without the need to watch them closely all the time.”
