Blue Paper Reduces Expert Analysis Time by 70% with ACOEM's Accurex™ AI on Massive Paper Machine

Customer Name: Blue Paper

Industry: Paper Manufacturing

Location: France

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Blue Paper faced the immense challenge of monitoring a massive paper machine. By implementing ACOEM’s online monitoring system powered by the Accurex™ automatic diagnostic AI, they successfully automated the initial analysis of all machine data. The solution provides clear, instant, and reliable health status updates, filtering out healthy machines and allowing experts to focus their skills only on critical issues. This has dramatically increased the efficiency of their monitoring program, improved diagnostic accuracy, and enabled proactive maintenance.

The Challenge

Blue Paper’s primary challenge was the sheer scale and complexity of monitoring their main paper machine. The vast amount of data generated made it nearly impossible for their human experts to analyze effectively and efficiently.

The sheer volume of data from 477 measurement channels (including 454 accelerometers and 36 synchronization sensors) created a risk of analysis paralysis. Critical, developing faults could be missed in the noise, while significant expert time could be wasted analyzing healthy machines, leading to inefficient resource allocation and potential for unexpected downtime.

Without an automated way to filter and diagnose, the maintenance team would have to manually review data from every single point, a time-consuming and unsustainable task. This reactive process limited their ability to monitor more machines with the same resources and get a realistic, real-time overview of the entire production line’s health.

The Solution

Blue Paper implemented a comprehensive online monitoring solution from ACOEM, with Accurex™ AI at its core.

The installation included 18 MV-x 32-channel data acquisition units housed in a double electrical cabinet. These units collect data from the machine’s 477 sensor channels. The data is processed by the Accurex™ AI engine and managed within the NEST i4.0 software platform. The results are also interfaced with Blue Paper’s own DCS supervision system via an OPC UA protocol for a centralized plant overview.

Accurex™ AI provides instant diagnostic results without a prior learning phase. It is designed to automatically identify a wide range of faults, from bearing and lubrication issues to imbalance and resonance, and present them with clear severity and confidence ratings. This ability to automate the first-pass analysis was the key to solving Blue Paper’s data overload problem.

The Results

The implementation of the ACOEM solution yielded significant, measurable improvements in maintenance efficiency and effectiveness.

The system provides a realistic, real-time machine health status, which has helped eliminate false alarms. The diagnostics and recommendations from the AI are validated by Blue Paper’s experts, creating a powerful synergy.

The most significant result is the gain in analysis time. With Accurex™, up to 70% of the machines require no further expert analysis after the automatic diagnosis. This allows Blue Paper to monitor more machines with the same resources. Compared to a traditional approach where 100% of machines require expert review, Accurex™ immediately reduces the analysis workload by 50% after the first measurement, with further gains on subsequent measurements.

The Impact

The ACOEM solution has fundamentally transformed Blue Paper’s condition monitoring strategy, fostering a highly efficient and collaborative environment between AI and human experts.

The solution has created a streamlined, three-step analysis process:

Control Room Vision: An immediate overview of machine section health is available to all plant operators.
Nest Vision: Maintenance teams can instantly consult the automatic diagnostics for any equipment in a warning state.
NEST i4.0: Experts can launch in-depth signal analysis for complex problems that have already been identified and prioritized by the AI.