How Sparrow Helped a Steel & Mining Giant Prevent Catastrophic Generator Failure

Country: Brazil
Application: Steel & Mining

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

A leading Brazilian steel and mining company avoided a critical failure on a generator thanks to Sparrow, the Acoem’s wireless IIoT vibration sensor. The early warning from Sparrow enabled a fast, targeted intervention that prevented production downtime, safeguarded key assets, and supported the company’s transition to predictive maintenance.

The Challenge

On a key winder generator, a hidden fault began developing due to axial pre-load on the bearing, leading to a rapid increase in vibration on the motor side.
Without a monitoring system in place, the consequences could have included:

Sudden mechanical breakdown
Unplanned production downtime
Expensive emergency repairs and lost output

In the steel and mining industry, downtime equals significant revenue loss. Early detection was essential.

The Solution

Solution implemented:
Sparrow, Acoem’s wireless IIoT vibration sensor, installed on the generator to continuously collect hourly vibration and temperature data, including post-processed time waveform signals.

Why Sparrow?
- Fast, wireless installation
- Continuous, remote monitoring of critical assets
- ISO-20816 compliant measurements
- Seamless integration into existing reliability programs

Problem resolution:
At 2:28 PM, Sparrow detected a sudden spike in axial vibration reaching 9.8 mm/s and 26 g’s.
The alert triggered a planned shutdown, allowing the team to send the generator for maintenance and replace the bearing before failure occurred.

The Results

Thanks to Sparrow’s early warning, the customer successfully avoided a catastrophic generator failure.

The sensor detected abnormal axial vibrations in time to trigger a planned intervention, allowing the maintenance team to replace the damaged bearing before a breakdown occurred.

As a result, the company experienced no unplanned downtime, carried out precise and efficient maintenance, and significantly reduced repair costs.

This also led to a noticeable improvement in asset reliability, reinforcing the importance of real-time condition monitoring in high-stakes industrial environments.

The Impact

Beyond solving an immediate issue, Sparrow’s performance demonstrated its long-term value. Encouraged by the successful intervention, the customer chose to expand the use of Sparrow across other critical assets on-site. This marked a key milestone in their transition from reactive to predictive maintenance.

The collaboration also helped to deepen the relationship between Acoem Reliability and the customer, establishing Sparrow as a strategic tool for ongoing asset health management in one of the world’s most demanding industries.