New thermal
monitoring increases efficiency in paper production
Thermal imaging sensors have developed with huge steps during the past few years. They could now be used at on-line applications, because the service interval is much longer than before and they have better sensitivity, accuracy and speed than in the currently used thermal sensors. These new kinds of thermal monitoring systems give foresight into developing problems, quick fault isolation and tools for proactive maintenance planning. Satakunta Polytechnic and Metso Automation are developing together this new kind of thermal monitoring solution for the paper machine in a EU funded pilot project THERM, which is a part of a larger Europe-wide initiative EUTIST-IMV. The project partners aim to make predictive on-line measurement of the condition of the polymer covers during the process. This will enable polymer cover changes during the pre-planned machine shutdowns. Two potential thermal monitoring applications, calender and wires & felts will be evaluated and tested on-line. The project is very significant for the competitiveness of the EU paper industry and has a large replication potential in similar applications like productions of plastics, steel and glass.
Satakunta Polytechnic and Metso Automation build up thermal monitoring system based on several thermal cameras, which are located in the critical parts of the paper machine. This new system has several benefits to offer for the paper industry. Paper factories will raise margins by increasing efficiency and availability (reducing unplanned down-time) of production lines. Losses caused by undesired shut-downs and certain machinery service tasks will be decreased. Integrated machine vision for European companies EUTIST-IMV is a European Commission supported initiative to help European companies to innovate and improve their businesses by using machine vision technology. The three-year programme is now in its middle. There are 23 pilot projects running, in which technology providers and end users have demonstrated the benefits of IMV, such as its excellent cost-effectiveness. The initiative is developing IMV applications for a variety of industries, such as sawmill, glass, food, manufacturing, papermills, textile and automotive sectors. Machine vision is integrated in food processing and assembly tasks to optimise the processes and to guarantee high quality products. Sometimes the quality control has to be reached deeper into the products. In one project MRI, a see-through technology, is integrated into the packaging line in order to detect the early stages of rot in citrus fruit. In another project the quality of biscuits and other baked products will be improved as a visual inspection and feedback control system of the several cooking zones of an industrial heavy-duty oven will be developed. One project results in an advanced machine vision system for the high-speed quality control of small, machined components for the automobile industry,which have the required accuracy of 10µm or higher. This system combines several components to provide an effective solution for complex real-time measurement tasks. These include an advanced image processing system, which can be tailored to specific customer needs, an ultra high-speed camera and laser projectors. It is able to measure up to 1 million points per second in three dimensions. A machine vision solution for the automotive glass industry has also been developed. An automatic visual inspection system is able to remove defective glass components from the production line as soon as the defect occurs. This means huge cost savings as potential problem sources can be located early and defective parts eliminated before further processing. Contact:
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