Norra Timber to install SPM Instruments’ online monitoring system
21/10/2021
Norra Timber’s Sävar sawmill in Sweden has chosen to install SPM Instruments’ latest and most high-tech online system, Intellinova Parallel EN, after a successful pilot test. The system provides exceptionally long pre-warning times for deteriorating mechanical condition and lubrication condition, with extremely clear measurement results that make it possible to detect early damage such as subsurface cracks in bearings.
Three Intellinova Parallel EN units, one 32-channel version and two with 16 channels, and 51 DuoTech accelerometers cover the entire bandsaw line. DuoTech combines vibration and shock pulse measurement in the same sensor, using the patented HD measurement technologies HD ENV and SPM HD.
Using the SPM ServiceNet portal, SPM Instruments also performs condition monitoring of the Sävar sawmill, where machine condition is monitored via remote analysis by SPM’s service engineers. The sawmill staff can easily follow the work through the web application Condmaster.NET via smartphones, tablets and computers for an immediate overview of the mechanical condition of critical assets in the facility.
Joakim Jonasson, Maintenance Manager Mechanics at Norra Timber, said: “The purpose of our investment has always been to avoid corrective maintenance as much as possible, to allow ourselves to plan the right maintenance effort at the right time, and thus work proactively and preventively.”
Unplanned stops in the major drives in the process can take anything from one to several shifts to rectify, which results in major production loss. This is difficult to catch up on since more or less everything produced is a sold product. With the measurement system, higher machine availability and better profitability can be maintained.
Another significant advantage, or security, that the system provides is increased safety in the form of reduced risk of fire in the event of bearing failure.
Sävar sawmill is a high-tech bandsaw line specialising in processing spruce and pine, a raw material from Norra Skog’s catchment area, which extends over half of northern Sweden. The annual production amounts to 320,000 m3 of sawn goods.
