Success Story: Connect Line Wireless Monitoring Solutions for Paper Mills

A special thanks to our educational collaboration partners at VKT for providing the data for this success story

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Introduction
CTC distribution partners, VKT, were commissioned to perform condition monitoring services at a paper mill in Sweden. VKT elected to pilot CTC Connect Wireless Vibration Monitoring Solutions paired with Viking AI MultiViz Software to remotely monitor a critical gearbox.

Overview

	Location: Paper Mill, Sweden
	Sensor and Gateway: WS301 Series ConnectSens™ Wireless Sensor located 75 m (246 ft.) away from ACCESS360 ConnectBridge™ Wireless Gateway
	Software Integration: Viking AI MultiViz
	Application: Input shaft of gearbox operating at 1495 RPM
	Mounting Method: Magnet mounted using CTC's MH214-3A
	Operating Environment: 40 °C (104 °F) with daily high pressure washdowns
	Duration of Case Study: 18 days

CTC WS300 wireless triaxial sensor on a CTC MH214-3A curved surface mounting magnet
WS300 Series ConnectSens Wireless Sensor with triaxial dynamic vibration signal capture

MH214-3A Curved Surface Magnet with 50 lbs. (23 kg) pull strength

An ACCESS360 ConnectBridge Wireless Gateway with clear cover showing internal circuitry
ACCESS360 ConnectBridge Wireless Gateway

Results

Charts from Viking AI MultiViz software showing data from condition monitoring with a WS300 wireless sensor

CTC Connect Wireless Hardware paired with Viking AI software was successful in detecting high vibration levels indicating a shaft alignment problem, resulting in damage to the coupling. The detection was automatically done by the software without any manual threashold settings or input of machine information! The WS301 Series ConnectSens™ Wireless Sensor presented no issues with prolonged exposure to high temperatures and presented no signs of water ingress from the washdowns.

After VKT warned the plant maintenance team about this issue, the plant elected to continue running the machine for several more days until a shutdown can be planned. VKT advised changing the load while the machine was running, and then ultimately replacing the coupling during shutdown. Once the machine was shut down and the coupling was replaced, visual inspection proved the insights provided by the data collected via CTC Connect Wireless Hardware and analyzed through Viking AI MultiViz Software is correct.

Visual Inspection

Photos of the shaft of the gearbox showing damage.

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