Drives and Control Solutions

Motors, Control Solutions, Power Transmission and Advanced Motion Technology                                                                 

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May 19, 2021

With the help of ABB Ability Condition Monitoring services, the Ash Grove cement plant in Mississauga was able to maximize its operational uptime through predictive maintenance and continuous monitoring of drives.

Ash Grove Cement, a CRH Company, is a major company in the cement industry, known for its commitment to safety, quality, and reliability. For over 137 years, Ash Grove has provided portland and masonry cements to construct the highways and bridges, commercial and industrial complexes, and single-and multi-family homes core to the economic vitality and quality of life in the communities it serves. In 2019, Ash Grove shipped over 14 million tons of cement from its plants and network of terminals located across the United States and Canada, making it one of the largest cement producers in North America.

Predictive maintenance enhances safety and efficiency

The rise of the IoT has created a surge of new interest in machine condition monitoring solutions, and several companies around the world are already using it for optimized equipment monitoring. ABB’s digital services provide a customizable approach that improves uptime, safety and productivity of critical process equipment.

Variable speed drives are connected via gateway, with the ABB cloud. Using the ABB Ability™ Condition Monitoring the customer has access to the monitoring portal where all the service data is collected. Accessing live data the drive performance can monitored including availability, condition, operating parameters and fault events. As a result, maintenance can be planned according to actual needs rather than based on fixed schedules or unexpected breakdowns. It also offers the possibility of taking proactive decision built on real-time information on drive events.

The digital solutions also allow the plant operators to monitor equipment remotely and keep their employees safe. For example, ABB Ability™ Condition Monitoring services enable easy access to data from equipment in locations that may be difficult or dangerous to reach. Digital monitoring makes it possible to automate maintenance planning, inspection, diagnostics of the equipment.

Ash Grove’s Mississauga plant opted for ABB’s Ability Condition Monitoring for Drives (CMD) services, due to the criticality of the monitored drives and believed that the predictive features combined with the bi-annual expert reports would allow them to achieve efficient and appropriate maintenance planning. They deployed CMD for three ACS1000 medium voltage drives and two ACS800 drives.

“As an organization, the Ash Grove Mississauga cement plant is moving towards predictive maintenance and condition-based monitoring to improve the overall plant reliability. We think that the remote condition monitoring tool for our ABB drives will provide us with all the required data and statistics, based on which we can develop our maintenance strategy,” said Tian Huang, Electrical Manager at Ash Grove Mississauga.

ABB Ability CMD has replaced the obsolete drive monitoring system of the cement plant and now plays a critical role in ensuring continuity and reliability of plant operations. After six months of subscription, the plant is planning now to extend and expand the usage of ABB Ability digital services to more assets.

Source

 

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Cables and wires in industrial robots and other moving machine parts are often required to withstand extreme stresses caused by torsion. Constant repetitive movements put materials under considerable strain. At the same time, operators expect components to function perfectly and reliably throughout their entire service life to avoid disruptions, outages and safety hazards.

For this reason, at HELUKABEL, we simulate intensive and continuous torsion stresses under realistic conditions with our high-tech testing equipment in Windsbach. We have several types of apparatus for doing this because some of our customers, for example those in the automotive industry, have very precise specifications for how a torsion test is carried out. The tests show that our cables and wires withstand speeds up to 1,000°/s, accelerations up to 2,000°/s² and torsion angles up to 720°. Hence, we make sure that each product always meets our customers’ high standards, and that they receive the impeccable quality they rightly expect from us as a leading supplier of cables, wires and accessories for more than 40 years.

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With Canadian manufacturing suffering from a growing labour shortage, the participation of industry in skills development is emerging as a vital component in hiring and retention.

The needs are stark: The Canadian Exporters and Manufacturers Association says almost 40% of its members have jobs they can’t fill. Five years from now, 60% expect to be short-staffed, especially when it comes to skilled trades. Statistics Canada forecasts the country’s labour force growth rate will remain below 0.2% for the rest of the decade, below replacement levels.

This growing shortage is affecting companies of all sizes. Already, some manufacturers acknowledge losing out on contracts because they can’t find the manpower to fulfill them.

In reality, the challenge is two-fold: to replenish and expand the workforce to help close the gap between the number of job seekers and vacancies through 2030 when the last baby boomers reach age 65, and ensure workers get opportunities throughout their careers to upgrade or add to their skillset as current technologies evolve and new ones emerge. Festo, through Festo Didactic, one of the world leading provider of equipment and solutions for technical education, intends to help Canada meet this challenge on both fronts. In essence, the approach Festo has always taken is that the learning never stops.

 

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