Norra Timber's Sävar sawmill 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 sub-surface cracks in bearings.
Three Intellinova Parallel EN units, one thirty-two channel version and two with sixteen channels, and fifty-one DuoTech accelerometers cover the entire band saw 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 Instrument also performs condition monitoring of 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, which is difficult to catch up on since more or less everything we produce are sold products. With the measurement system, we can maintain higher machine availability and better profitability.
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, which is otherwise something that we in the industry have great respect for."
Sävar sawmill is a high-tech band saw line specializing 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.
