Ask Our Experts: A case example for Pulp & Paper industries

Doesn’t the use of Industrial Internet just make things more complicated and vulnerable?

The converting line operator has a practical problem because he has no rolls coming in on the conveyor from the automatic warehouse. He couldn’t care less about any “Industrial Internet“.

George R, United States

Thank you for your question, George.

To solve the mentioned problem and get the rolls moving in as soon as possible, remote connection can in fact provide valuable help.

Through a remote connection, the crane automation specialist can immediately see from the log-files that the crane has stopped precisely at 15:07:43 hours with its load hanging in the roll gripper on the top of the outfeed conveyor. He can also see the rolls ID number, its diameter, width and weight.

A missing hardwired safety signal from the conveyor is traced from the short term data logs in a few minutes. With the cameras on board the crane, the specialist can also see that there is no roll on the conveyor output and that it’s empty.

A safety signal is released by the conveyor automation (PLC) when the conveyor is empty and ready to receive a roll and if not released, the crane is stopped within a safety distance to avoid collision risk. Now – with this information- the operator can check the conveyor and either drive it empty on manual command or reset it and let the process go on.

This way the remote connection, sensoring and video monitoring on board the crane can save hours of troubleshooting time.

Hannu Piispanen, Industry Specialist, Pulp and Paper, Konecranes

 

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