Hot commodities are safely monitored

Customer Success Story

Integrating Measurement Data into One’s Own Software

To prevent unplanned machine downtime during the production of all types of bearings in its forge and hardening facility, the maintenance team at Schaeffler’s Schweinfurt plant was looking for a condition monitoring solution that would be primarily used for the forging presses, annealing and hardening furnaces. This solution should be able to optimize maintenance work, provide continuous live updates on the machines’ status, minimize inventory costs and, above all, integrate into the facility’s existing predictive maintenance system. The ProLink CMS monitoring system meets all these requirements. As a result, the maintenance team is now using 62 systems with a total of 461 measuring points.

Results:

Nine unplanned shutdowns were avoided in just two and a half years.
90,000 euros in cost savings.

“With ProLink CMS, we can monitor machines in real time. Ultimately, this allows us to detect imminent damage at an early stage and plan our maintenance activities. This can save us up to 10,000 euros per damage detected. Great system!"

Holger Sternberg – New Technologies, Schaeffler Schweinfurt

Challenge
Solution & What's Special
Savings
Technical Information
Download
Contact

Challenge

Schweinfurt: Large as well as small bearing rings are manufactured in the Schaeffler plant’s forge and hardening facility, where harsh working conditions are the norm for humans and machines. Here, the press performs a remarkable feat of strength when compressing and punching the bearing rings. High temperatures exceeding 1000 °C in the forging furnaces and 800 °C in the hardening furnaces, as well as dirt, are constant companions of the maintenance team. If, for example, an annealing furnace fan fails unexpectedly, the shutdown can last several hours. This is because the furnace must first cool down for a number of hours before maintenance work can start. In a worst-case scenario, a new fan may not be in stock because spare parts are only stored in limited quantities. This is precisely why the maintenance team has been using a condition monitoring solution for years. But while it has served the team well, it is no longer up to date.

Thomas Steinlein, head of the MU3 maintenance department in Schweinfurt, sums up the problem in a nutshell:

“The machines and their components are constantly under stress due to high temperatures, heavy use, and dirt. A “smart” condition monitoring system would not only relieve the burden on maintenance, it would also increase safety, because the most crucial machines are often difficult to access. That’s why we’re looking for a monitoring solution that provides more planning reliability, offers greater safety for personnel and, ideally, integrates into our maintenance software.“

The team started by inquiring about a suitable solution within its own ranks.

Forging press

After being heated to 1200 °C, large bearings are shaped in the press by compressing and punching.

Smaller bearing rings are usually cut from pipe or rod steel and then – just like the forged ones – undergo processing. This involves machining the blanks on multi-spindle automatic lathes, while chips are removed from the inner and outer surfaces – thereby creating the raceway for the rolling elements as well as notches for the lateral seals on the bearing rings.

Solution

To monitor the most critical machines, the Schaeffler Lifetime Solutions experts recommended using the ProLink CMS. This is a multi-channel condition monitoring system that is preferred for machines with variable operating conditions and harsh environmental conditions, such as surface temperatures exceeding 70 °C. Schaeffler Schweinfurt uses the 16-channel ProLink CMS to monitor the condition of the various machines. This process mainly involves measuring vibrations. Since the monitoring system was put into operation, nine unplanned breakdowns have been prevented in the forge.

The following case studies illustrate how successful ProLink CMS has been in preventing unplanned downtime:

Case study 1: Pump failure prevented
A warning message on a pump is displayed in the Schaeffler maintenance software. The maintenance department confirmed the error message and inspected the pump. Bearing damage inside the pump was the cause of the warning message. The pump was immediately replaced during a scheduled machine shutdown over the weekend.
Case study 2: Circulator defect detected in time
An alarm was displayed on a circulator of the annealing furnace. Maintenance confirmed the error message. The circulator was subsequently replaced during non-production time, which enabled the maintenance team to prevent an extended period of unplanned downtime.

What’s Special

The forge and hardening shop were the first sites to install ProLink CMS in a real-life environment, which allowed all functions to be tested before going to market. Thoroughly convinced of the system’s effectiveness, the maintenance department now has 62 ProLink CMS systems with 461 vibration sensors in use – with more planned for the future.

ProLink CMS
Multiple sensors monitor the forging press. Up to 16 measuring points are possible per system. Data exchange takes place via OPC/UA.
ProLink CMS
System inside the control panel

Savings

Annealing furnace

Costs resulting from an unplanned shutdown

Repairs up to	€ 2,000
Downtime up to	€ 4,500
Production losses up to	€ 3,500
Total costs	€ 10,000

Savings from nine prevented outages in two and a half years using ProLink CMS: € 90,000*
*The non-recurring acquisition costs are to be deducted from this.

Technical Information

How Schaeffler ProLink CMS works
Schaeffler sensors record the vibrations on the machine while the ProLink condition monitoring system analyzes the overall vibration condition as well as component-specific vibrations, e.g. in bearings, gears. All parameters and alarm statuses can be transmitted to the control room and the machine control system using OPC UA. The alarm condition can also be transmitted simultaneously to a maintenance planning system via OPC UA. The appropriate maintenance measures can then be initiated from there. High costs incurred by a stoppage can thus be reliably prevented.

Technical information on ProLink CMS

Data exchange	via OPC/UA
Interface to maintenance planning systems such as SAP/PM and IBM Maximo	via OPC/UA
Cyclical transmission of the report or in case of alarm	Email
Exchange of measurement data	Via fieldbus. In planning: Profinet and CC-Link IE Field

Facts & Figures

Total
62 ProLink CMS systems with 461 sensors

Forge
7 forging presses
9 ProLink CMS systems with 72 sensors
4 annealing furnaces
6 ProLink CMS systems with 77 sensors

Hardening shop
4 hardening furnaces
8 ProLink CMS systems with 96 sensors
1 tempering furnace
1 ProLink CMS systems with 2 sensors

Planned
2 hardening furnaces
4 ProLink CMS systems with 36 sensors

ProLink CMS is part of the Schaeffler Lifetime Solutions portfolio, which offers a comprehensive range of products, services and solutions for industrial maintenance. It is designed to support maintenance engineers throughout a machine’s entire lifetime.

To Schaeffler Lifetime Solutions