Overview
A cement plant runs a large population of B and C class main and auxiliary machines. These units are not critical enough for permanent wired monitoring, yet a seized bearing or a failed fan stops a line. Maintenance worked to a calendar, opening machines that were still healthy and missing others that were not.
The site wanted condition data from machines that had never been instrumented, without laying cable to each one. The plan was broad coverage at low cost, with vibration as the leading indicator, plus early warning on abnormal temperature and unexpected start or stop events.
Challenges
Machines never instrumented
B and C class main and auxiliary machines are not critical enough for permanent wired monitoring, yet a seized bearing or a failed fan still stops a line.
Maintenance on a calendar
Units were opened on a fixed schedule, so healthy machines were disturbed and failing ones were missed between stops.
No cable to each machine
Condition data was wanted from a large population of machines without laying cable to every one of them.
Solution
Vibration and temperature readings leave each machine node over the WES-WIO wireless terminal protocol. The edge gateway gathers the wired and wireless nodes on the line and keeps sampling when the uplink is briefly lost. Data then flows to the WES device management platform.
Self-learning vibration analysis runs on the trend history gathered from the plant. A rising envelope or a shift in the run state raises a work order before the machine fails. Engineers see which unit needs attention and when, instead of opening machines on a fixed calendar.
