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Detecting critical vibrations in rolling mills

In rolling mills, many vibrations may occur that have negative effects on the life cycle and the state of the plant, but also on product quality. If wear and defects are detected early enough, appropriate counter-measures can be initiated for reducing waste and downtimes. Anyway, the user has to know exactly the vibration behavior of the plant and set it into relation to other process data from the plant. In a cold rolling mill, the process data recording system ibaPDA has been used for process data analysis, but the vibration measurement data was evaluated separately. With ibaInSpectra as add-on to the ibaPDA system, the acquired vibration signals can be analyzed within defined frequency ranges. Simultaneously, processes with all machine, material and quality data can be monitored.

Business Benefits

Automatic alarm
in real time when limit values are exceeded

Easy integration
in the existing iba system

Minimizing false alarms
by taking process parameters into consideration


The Technology


Cold rolling mills show a complex vibration behavior, consisting of natural vibrations of the plant mechanics as well as excitations from the drive or bearings but also vibrations caused by defects. The aim of the monitoring is to detect vibrations that are caused by external excitation or faults. In this particular case, acceleration sensors on the chocks which serve as bearing for the rolls give insight into the vibration behavior of the whole stand. During normal operation, the natural vibrations of the stand are in the low-frequency range. High-frequency vibrations are an indicator for external excitation. With ibaInSpectra, these vibrations can be assigned to individual components.


"Vibrations in complex plants can only be understood with the unique combination of full-fledged vibration monitoring with process data."

Günter Spreitzhofer
Application & Consulting,
iba AG

iba Products


Measuring value acquisition - ibaPDA
ibaPDA

As the central core of the iba system, ibaPDA has proven itself as one of the most versatile data acquisition systems for maintenance and production for many years. Among the many powerful features of ibaPDA are asset-agnostic acquisition, high-speed synchronous archiving, and real-time streaming analytics.

Analysis of vibrations - ibaInSpectra
ibaInSpectra - Real-time Condition Monitoring of process vibrations

With ibaInSpectra, vibrations are monitored continuously and possible error sources can be detected in an early stage. As ibaInSpectra is integrated in ibaPDA, not only can pure vibration analyses can be done, but possible relations between vibrational effects and process behavior can also be determined.

ibaQPanel

ibaQPanel is a software addon that allows for the live display of process and quality data in an HMI-picture. ibaQPanel combines the functionality of technological representations of measurement variables with elements typical for HMI screens. It is seamlessly integrated in ibaPDA.

iba Modular System
iba Modular System

The iba modular system acquires and processes measurement signals and is with the appropriate signal output modules perfectly suited for control applications. The decisive advantage of the system is the modular concept that can be freely designed: On a module rack with backplane bus, one central unit and up to four other input and output modules can be plugged.


The ibaMS8xIEPE samples the values of the vibration sensors at a rate of up to 40 kHz with 16-fold oversampling and make these values available to the ibaPDA system in digital form. With ibaInSpectra Expert modules, a freely configurable frequency band analysis in real time can be applied to the data. For every frequency band, characteristic values like peak, RMS and peak frequency can be determined. The system acquires data from the plant, such as speed, rolling force, torque, etc. time synchronously. The characteristic values of the frequency band and the process data can be used to draw conclusions about the cause of the undesired vibration.

ibaInSpectra can vary vibration-relevant process parameters online using the integrated alarm function, in order to keep the vibrations within reasonable limits. Additionally, the measurement data are visualized in real time with the ibaQPanel on the control stand of the control system. Thus, the operator can initiate manual interventions in a targeted way.

Rolling mill topology
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