Predictive Maintenance Solution Prevents Expensive Fan Downtime

Customer Success Story

For the comprehensive condition monitoring of its machines, the Polish cement plant Chełm of CEMEX, the world‘s leading manufacturer of building materials, uses the wireless condition monitoring solution OPTIME (CM). A few months after the installation of the solution, a warning message was displayed in the OPTIME app on one of the large fans. Thanks to this warning the maintenance team was able to react quickly and avoid an unplanned downtime.

“We have been using condition monitoring solutions by Schaeffler for years. Each solution provides us with the protection we need for our machines. With OPTIME CM we are able to implement comprehensive monitoring in our plant in the future. The ProLink CMS monitoring solution is ideal for our critical gears on the cement mills, kiln and dry breakers.

We are completely satisfied with Schaeffler Lifetime Solutions and Service.“

Jacek Roman, Maintenance Manager, Poland Chelm

Benefits
Challenge
Solution
What's Special
Technical Information
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Benefits

Customer benefits

Condition monitoring in real time via OPTIME App
Quick and easy installation of OPTIME CM components
Data is easy to read and understand – no expert knowledge required
Improved safety for employees – wireless sensors eliminate the need to access hard-to-reach machinery
Cost-effective solution for comprehensive machine monitoring
Permits long-term planning of maintenance measures, personnel requirements and spare parts procurement
Less unplanned downtime

Challenge

Motors, gears, pumps and fans are some of the critical units in a cement production plant. If these units unexpectedly fail, the maintenance department has to expect significant costs. Reasons for the failures can be caused, for example, by imbalance, heavy contamination, incorrect lubrication of the bearings or aging. Therefore, the maintenance department was looking for a monitoring solution that would allow the possible reasons to be detected at an early stage and avoid unplanned downtimes.

Jacek Roman, maintenance manager at the Polish plant in Chełm, specifies his needs as follows:

“On the one hand, we need a monitoring solution that gives us a comprehensive overview of the machines. On the other hand, the new solution should ensure more safety for the employees. After all, the auxiliary units are often very difficult to access and can thus easily result in accidents.“

Technical information on the fan

Type	Large radial fan Application: exhauster
Motor of the fan Speed Power	992rpm 2250 kW

Solution

The experts at Schaeffler recommended their award-winning OPTIME condition monitoring solution. This scalable system consists of wireless sensors, a cellular gateway and digital services that are based on proprietary Schaeffler algorithms. 100 OPTIME sensors have been installed to monitor pumps, fans, gearboxes and motors at the first stage. With this solution most of the machines are monitored on a continuous basis.

A few months after installation, a warning message was displayed on fan J1P21 in the OPTIME app. This main exhaust fan is a strategic machine for the clinker production process area. The Cemex maintenance team confirmed the error message after an inspection. An imbalance and bearing damage probably caused an increase in the vibration level. The problem was was preliminarily fixed by the maintenance team and an unplanned shutdown was avoided. The machine is still under control and corrective action is planned for the next main shutdown.

What's Special

The maintenance department at the Chełm plant in Poland has trusted Schaeffler condition monitoring solutions for years. They started out with SmartCheck, a monitoring solution for individual production-critical machines. OPTIME CM has now been implemented for comprehensive monitoring. For monitoring of the large Symetro gearbox of the cement mill and the main drive of the kiln and dryer crusher, the plant‘s maintenance department uses the ProLink CMS. This is a multi-channel condition monitoring system. It is preferably used for machines with variable operating conditions and harsh ambient conditions such as surface temperatures of more than 70 °C. Another ProLink CMS will soon be installed to monitor other Symetro gearboxes.

OPTIME CM sensors on a driven side of the fan
OPTIME CM sensors on a non-driven side of the fan

Technical Information

OPTIME’s CM sensors monitor the machinery and equipment at the customer’s site. The gateway receives the data from the sensors and transfers them to the Schaeffler cloud. OPTIME CM automatically detects problems, issues the appropriate alarms, and provides information about the possible cause of the problem. Expert condition monitoring knowledge on the part of the customer is not required as it is already fully integrated into OPTIME CM in the form of Schaeffler knowhow. OPTIME CM essentially provides customers with an expert analysis that has been integrated into the Digital Services.

Technical Information on OPTIME CM Sensor 3/5

Vibration bandwidth	OPTIME-3 2 Hz - 3 kHz OPTIME-5 2 Hz - 5 kHz
Calculated parameters	7
Sensor commissioning	NFC (Near Field Communication)
Communication	Wirepas Mesh (2.4 GHz ISM band)
Measurement cycle	Parameters: every 4 h Time signal: every 24 h

OPTIME CM is part of the Schaeffler Lifetime Solutions portfolio, which offers a comprehensive range of products, services and solutions for industrial maintenance. It is designed to support maintenance engineers over the entire lifetime of a machine.

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