In this use case, the central issue is the poor performance of a conveyor system including short bearing life. Since a few years, condition-based maintenance has been introduced with good results and unplanned shutdowns due to bearing failures has been eliminated. Still, bearing life is shorter than expected resulting in reduced technical availability and high maintenance cost. One root cause to short bearing life might be higher loads than expected. By making vibration-based MCIs available in PI and combine these with “process-data” understanding of operating conditions will increase. This data will be used by SKF bearing application engineers in their work with understanding bearing failure root causes and suggest mitigating activities.
Boliden is keen on fostering collaboration, aiming to bring together various companies to pool their ideas and expertise to address the problem collectively. This collaborative approach is seen as a way to enhance problem-solving capabilities and leverage shared knowledge. This should happen with the support of SKF condition monitoring experts and bearing application engineers.
To exchange data between Boliden and SKF, the PI System of Boliden will be connected to the CONNECT data services instance of Boliden, then sharing the data with SKF’s CONNECT data services tenant. This will include both condition monitoring/vibrations data coming from Boliden’s SKF Observer instance and process data coming from their ABB 800XA System.
Furthermore, there is a preference within the maintenance department to centralize data within the ABB 800XA system. However, there is also a desire to have maintenance personnel utilize the PI System more effectively. This suggests a need for integration or interoperability between the PI System and the ABB 800XA to ensure that maintenance staff have seamless access to all necessary data.
To address these issues, a structured approach to data analysis and system integration is required. This would involve a detailed assessment of the current data collected by SKF Observer, identifying any gaps in data that prevent a root cause analysis. Once these gaps are identified, a plan can be developed to collect the necessary data, possibly involving additional sensors or monitoring techniques.
Simultaneously, efforts should be made to enhance the integration between the PI system and the ABB 800XA, allowing for a unified view of the data. This could involve developing custom interfaces or utilizing existing middleware solutions to ensure that data flows smoothly between the two systems and is accessible to maintenance personnel in a format that supports effective decision-making.
The ultimate goal is to not only solve the immediate problem with the conveyor but also to establish a robust framework for maintenance that leverages the strengths of both the PI and ABB 800XA systems. This framework would support proactive maintenance strategies, reduce downtime, and improve overall operational efficiency. The collaborative efforts between different companies and the sharing of knowledge and resources would be instrumental in achieving this goal.
It should also be thought of that KPIs generated through SKF’s condition monitoring platform can be sent back into the Boliden PI System.