SmartDiagnostics® gives your Pulp & Paper Machines a Voice
Every step in the pulp & paper process involves efficient, continuous operation of many pieces of rotating machinery that can wear rapidly in sustained use in a demanding environment. If these machines fail, not only can they be costly to repair or replace, but they may well bring the plant to a standstill.
How can SmartDiagnostics® help in the Pulp & Paper Industry?
Clogging wood chips were causing a pulp and paper mill in Pennsylvania to experiencing frequent shutdowns and repairs of a pump that was part of the mill's pulping process. The mill decided to acquire a SmartDiagnostics® system to see if they could predict when the pump was starting to clog so that they could correct the problem before it caused significant damage and downtime. After a bit of time being mounted on the pump, the system started to show an increase in vibration at the pump's turning speed at the axial monitoring location. After a restart of the pump, a large upward vibration trend was noticed at a harmonic of the pump's turning speed at the radial monitoring location, indicating the impending likelihood of a potential failure. This information could be used to intervene, repair the pump during a scheduled maintenance interval, and keep production on track.
Left: Depiction of the pump described above.
Right: Vibration spectrum typical of the SmartDiagnostics® monitoring system.
“The success of any on-line vibration monitoring system depends entirely on the engineering. Engineering includes all aspects of selection, installation and configuration of hardware and software. … As monitoring systems become more flexible, open and configurable, the importance of engineering increases.”Mike Robichaud, General Manager of Reliability Engineering, Acuren: "Practical On-Line Vibration Monitoring for Papermachines," PaperCon 2009
CHALLENGES
- Massive equipment and very large number of bearings can make monitoring difficult, or even dangerous
- Small maintenance crews are tasked with monitoring a large number of machines with hard-to reach sensors
- Avoiding costly downtime requires frequent monitoring and preplanned maintenance
SmartDiagnostics® BENEFITS
- Inexpensive and easy to install
- Shows more data at a lower cost making machine health trends more apparent
- Allows maintenance teams to more efficiently use their time and schedule maintenance activities
- Reaches places more traditional monitoring methods can not
- Real-time continuous remote monitoring