Case Story: IoT-compatible monitoring solution for critical roller bearings

This IoT-compatible monitoring solution is protecting critical roller bearings of a paper machine’s dryer section in the Philippines.

PCH 1420 vibration monitor with buffered outputs for easy raw data access

Permanently mounted sensors
Continuous monitoring in real time
Data visualisations and trending
Remote access to data
IoT and Modbus TCP compatible

The problem

A client in the paper industry wished to prevent bearing failure and secondary damage to the drying section of their critical paper machines. The client knew that vibration monitoring is one of the most common methods to detect early stages of bearing wear and had already installed accelerometers for handheld equipment.

But manual monitoring leaves a lot of room for faults to emerge between measurements, which is why the paper manufacturer wished to upgrade to continuous online monitoring and remote analysis. They reached out to our local distributor about a monitoring solution that would integrate seamlessly with their IoT-based maintenance system.

The solution

We provided an IoT-compatible vibration monitoring solution consisting of:

4 x 1420 PCH Vibration Monitor = 16 input channels
1 x PCH EtherBridge IoT = IoT-integration
PCH Cloud = data storage
PCH DataViewer software = data visualisation for analysis

We were able to repurpose the existing accelerometers for the new online monitoring application as the modular PCH monitoring system is compatible with most sensor brands. The client installed four 4-channel PCH 1420 Vibration Monitors and the PCH EtherBridge IoT module in a local cabinet according to instructions from us and our local distributor.

Each of the 16 input channels measures velocity in mm/s, high frequency acceleration peak, envelope, kurtosis, and crest factor. The PCH EtherBridge IoT communication module enables online tracking and remote analysis of vibration data.

See our solutions for bearing monitoring