$10M Quality Breakthrough: How ACOEM's Monitoring Technology is Transforming Production

Localisation: USA
Application: HVAC

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

A major player in the HVAC industry, specializing in aluminum tube manufacturing faced a critical quality issue in its aluminum tube production, leading to $10 million in financial losses. Microscopic holes in the finished products compromised their integrity, but the complexity of the manufacturing process made identifying the root cause extremely difficult.

To prevent these defects, the company systematically replaced bearings on critical assets every 48 hours, a costly and inefficient strategy. Seeking a more sustainable approach, they adopted an integrated condition monitoring ecosystem combining both real-time wired and wireless vibration analysis.

The Challenge

A major player in the HVAC industry, specializing in aluminum tube manufacturing faced a critical quality issue in its aluminum tube production: microscopic holes compromising the integrity of finished products. This defect led to significant financial losses and impacted brand reputation.

Identifying the root cause was particularly challenging due to the complexity of the manufacturing process. To mitigate the issue, the company replaced bearings every 48 hours, an expensive and unsustainable approach.

Additionally, the frequent need to disassemble machines for maintenance made wired solutions impractical, as they would create unnecessary clutter and increase downtime. A wireless condition monitoring system was the optimal choice, ensuring continuous asset monitoring without interfering with operations.

Lacking in-house expertise in condition monitoring, the company also required full technical support to transition toward a more proactive maintenance strategy.

The Solution

To address these challenges, the company chose the ACOEM Reliability ecosystem, combining:

MV-x (advanced real time vibration analysis)
Sparrow (compact wireless sensors)
Nest Vision (cloud platform for monitoring and reporting)
Advisor Contract (dedicated expert support)

Why ACOEM?

Advanced vibration expertise: ACOEM’s diagnostics capabilities help identify bearing defects at critical stages of production.
Integrated monitoring ecosystem: Combining MVX (wired real-time analysis) and Sparrow (wireless sensors) within a single software platform, offering unified access to machine health data.
Scalability: The solution can easily be extended to additional production lines.
Expert support: Through the Advisor Contract, remote specialists provide continuous insights, supporting teams without in-house vibration analysis expertise.

The implementation included MV-x housed in a dedicated enclosure, ensuring reliable real-time monitoring, while Sparrow’s wireless sensors complemented the system by offering flexible, easy-to-deploy data collection—all accessible through a single Nest Vision interface.

The Result

With ACOEM Advisor remote expertise, combined with MV-x and Sparrow’s advanced vibration analysis, the company is positioned to:

Identify bearing defects earlier and optimize replacement strategies.
Reduce maintenance costs by extending bearing lifespan.
Improve aluminum tube quality by progressively eliminating production defects.

The Impact

Building on these early insights, the company is evaluating the potential for reducing bearing replacement frequency and enhancing overall production quality.

With seamless access to data and expert analysis via Nest Vision, the company is also considering expanding condition monitoring to additional production lines, reinforcing its commitment to digital transformation in maintenance.