How ACOEM Helped a Global Leader in the Paper Industry to Prevent Costly Downtime

Country: Global presence
Application: Paper and fibre production

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

A global leader in paper machine manufacturing faced a critical challenge: ensuring the reliability of its high-vibration equipment to prevent costly unplanned downtime.

With ACOEM’s FALCON and MV-X, the company implemented an advanced vibration monitoring solution, enabling early fault detection and optimized predictive maintenance. The result? Fewer failures, improved efficiency, and a rapid ROI.

The Challenge

The customer, a major player in the paper industry, had to guarantee the reliability of its critical equipment, including ISA (Inertial Shaft Assembly) inertial oscillations, which are subject to complex kinematics and very high vibration levels. This also led to quality issues, and monitoring allows them to ensure production under optimal conditions while reducing non-quality defects.

The challenges faced:

Early detection of mechanical defects to avoid unplanned production shutdowns
Installation of monitoring solutions at remote sites, including internationally
Variable operating conditions, requiring precise and reproducible measurements
An undetected defect could lead to accelerated component wear, increased maintenance costs and significant production losses.

The Solution

Faced with these challenges, the client trusted ACOEM to implement an advanced vibration monitoring solution based on:

Advisor: AI-driven diagnostic platform providing expert analysis and actionable insights
FALCON: Portable vibration data collector for real-time diagnostics
MV-X: Continuous monitoring system for permanent monitoring of critical machines

Why ACOEM?

Recognized expertise in the paper industry
High-performance diagnostic solutions adapted to demanding environments
Tailor-made support, with an in-depth testing phase between 2018 and 2020

The tests consisted of generating mechanical defects (defective coupling, restricted inter-tooth clearance) on an ISA inertial swing, allowing to optimize:

The location of accelerometers for better fault detection
The vibratory alarm thresholds, adapted to operating conditions
Monitoring parameters to accurately identify critical failures

The Results

Through this collaboration, the client was able to:

Deploy the ACOEM solution on all inertial swing heads at its customers
Detect a limited backlash defect in the pinning, resulting in an increase of the forces at the frequency of impingement and its harmonics
Improve the reliability of its equipment by reducing the risk of unplanned downtime and quality issues
Return the cost of equipment and service in a few months, with the detection of a bearing failure before any major failure occurs.

The Impact

Improved operational performance: Less downtime, better maintenance planning
Improved customer satisfaction through enhanced equipment reliability
Optimization of predictive maintenance: remote monitoring, early identification of anomalies
Strengthened partnership with Acoem: OEM confidence in FALCON & MV-X products and Advisor experts confirmed by concrete results.

Thanks to this, the leading paper manufacturer now has a more proactive and reliable maintenance strategy, ensuring the availability and performance of its critical equipment over the long term.