Case Study
Sawmill + Cogen Biomass power plant
Applications:
by
Bob Kappa
SPM Instrument Inc. / North America
September 2021
Contents
This report will cover some applications in both a sawmill and an adjacent cogeneration biomass power plant
Mill information
The parent company includes sawmills, a timber company, and a clean-running biomass facility.
The complex boasts a dimension mill and a stud mill along with a Cogen biomass power plant.
The dimension sawmill product ranges from 2x4 to 2×14, up to 28 feet in length. This mill processes logs in diameters ranging from 12 to 40 inches in size.
The stud mills complex processes logs with diameters ranging from 3 to 14 inches to produce 2×4 and 2×6 studs in lengths of 8, 9, and 10 feet.
The production capacity at the second location is 220 million board feet. The product line consists of green dimension lumber, generally 2×4’s, 2×6’s and 2×10’s in lengths of 8 to 24 feet. They also offer a 1-inch mill run product as well as railroad ties.
Between the two sawmills, the parent company currently monitors 107 pieces of equipment comprising 440 measuring points.
They purchased a Leonova Diamond plus software package in March 2016. In addition, they also currently utilize 77 Airius sensors (both 1K and 5K) on various applications throughout the mill and continue to expand to other applications.
Below are screenshots of applications being currently monitored.
Cogen bio-mass power plant:
Mill “A”:
Stud Mill:
Merchandizer (log sorter):
Mill at Second Location:
Below are some of the measurements taken and the faults that were discovered.
Condmaster Ruby 2020 setup:
Results:
Results (continued):
Cogen grate water pump #1 drive end bearing photos:
Note that the outer race photo was not taken, but it was also showing damage.
Sawmill “A” left twin band-mill #2 (drive end bottom wheel bearing):
Vibration data was collected using a 1K Airius sensor.
Condmaster Ruby 2020 setup:
Results:
Below is the BPFI trend graph along with the velocity spectrum indicating inner race bearing damage.
Results (continued):
Stud Mill #1 Quad Band-Mill (drive end bottom wheel bearing:
Vibration data was collected using Leonova Diamond.
Condmaster Ruby 2020 Setup:
Results:
BPFI matches showing up on filter 4, filter 3 including unfiltered velocity with harmonics. Also, Hdm/Hdc readings elevated.
Results (continued):
Prior to March 2016, the company did not have a predictive maintenance vibration monitoring program.
In March 2016, they invested in a Leonova Diamond with shock pulse (HDm/HDc) plus ISO 2372 vibration. Eventually, they added FFT with symptoms + HD ENV and upgraded their software to Ruby 2020. They took Mobius vibration training to advance their knowledge in vibration analysis.
Since the program began, they have successfully detected numerous vibration issues which have saved them countless hours of expensive downtime, not to mention secondary equipment damage.
They continue to expand their program by adding Airius sensors on various difficult to access applications and are also considering adding some of our hardwired online systems (INSEN) to some of their more critical applications (planer, kiln fans, various gearboxes, HewSaw).