An early diagnosis for the crane under a microscope: A deep look into the crane machinery at Germany’s Palm paper factory

Feb 13, 2019 | Tech

Konecranes investigates the hoisting gears of the critical overhead cranes at the Palm paper factory, with Oil Analysis and Crane Reliability Study (CRS)

Churning out corrugated base paper: The paper machine 6 (PM6) at the Palm paper factory in Wörth am Rhein, Germany, annually produces some 650,000 tons of the versatile packaging raw material with surface weights of up to 160 g/m2. In order to safely transport these huge paper rolls day and night, the double-girder bridge cranes inside the factory must always function flawlessly. For this reason, Konecranes has closely analyzed the gear oil of the cranes and used the endoscope to look deep inside the gears.

Paper remains one of the most important resources for the economy: According to the association of German paper factories, the paper industry sold approximately 23 million tons of paper, cardboard and paperboard in 2017 – up 1.4 percent from 2016. The packaging industry is especially hungry for paper. Sales in this sector increased by 3.4 percent last year alone. This is the area of operation for the paper machine 6 (PM6) at the Palm paper factory in Wörth am Rhein. The 650,000 tons of corrugated base paper it produces each year is handled at various stages by eleven double girder overhead cranes, all playing their own crucial role in the paper production on PM6. In order to safely transport these large paper rolls day and night, the hoisting gears of the eleven cranes inside the factory must always be in top operating condition. For this reason, Palm has asked Konecranes to look at eight of its most critical cranes.

Following the results of the oil analysis and subsequent endoscopic investigation, the maintenance experts identified a significant risk to future production and replaced one of the hoisting gears completely.

Record paper machine produces around the clock

At the Palm paper factory, located in Aalen in Baden-Württemberg, everything circles around recovered paper. Nine paper machines in five factories annually produce approximately 2.2 million tons of newsprint and corrugated base paper. The paper production continues around the clock. Correspondingly high are the demands from the eleven double-girder bridge cranes that have been in use in the factory in Wörth am Rhein since the start of production in 2002. Collectively, they handle and store the completed paper rolls that weigh many tons. “The cranes are in use day and night,” says Sven Bohrer, electrical engineer at the Palm paper factory. “If one should break one day, the production would have to stop, or at least greatly slow down, until the problem is solved. This would cost us time and money.” For this reason, Konecranes has closely investigated the gear oil of the hoisting gears of eight of the eleven double-girder bridge cranes at Palm. Because you can look deep inside the oil, the wear metals and waste substances it contains make it possible to draw conclusions about the state of the entire gear. Nico Zamzow, Vice President Industrial Service EMEA Central at Konecranes, comments on the method: “The oil analysis protects the crane. Any damage can be identified and treated early with its help. Moreover, system operators are able to optimize the maintenance and servicing of the cranes thanks to the detailed analysis report, and thus significantly increase their lifespan.”

For the oil analysis at Palm, Konecranes experts took samples from the hoisting gears of the eight double-girder bridge cranes. “The samples are analyzed by our laboratory, which specializes in industrial drive train analysis. Here, the lab staff compares the current state of the oil with the samples taken in 2016 and against the OEM design limits,” says Nico Zamzow. “This way, we also use trend analysis to provide the best possible picture of any change within the condition of the gearbox.” The result for Palm: Seven of the eight cranes were found to be “healthy”, as in the gear oil contained few to no foreign elements or waste substances indicating contamination or wear. However, the gear oil of the automated number 5 crane, used in the roll warehouse, was found to have a noticeable increase in its wear partial count, triggering the lab to issue a “Caution” notification on the analysis report. Nico Zamzow: “Iron particles in the oil can be an indication of increased wear and a deeper look may be required for this particular hoist”.

Crane Reliability Study has the solution

If the reason for the wear is not clearly identified and removed, the gear may be permanently damaged. “If the gear is jammed while there is a roll on the hook, it becomes very difficult to recover it and repair the crane,” explains Nico Zamzow. In order to determine whether there is already damage, the Konecranes experts used the Crane Reliability Study (CRS). The modular analysis allows them to check safety-relevant components, such as the hoisting gear as well as the steel structure, the motors, and the electrical equipment of the crane. In addition, the maintenance experts pose questions to crane drivers and technicians. The analysis result flows into a detailed report for crane owners – with concrete recommendations for action. In the case of Palm, Konecranes used a high-definition video endoscope to investigate the hoisting gear. “Just like in medicine, we use the endoscope to reach inaccessible places without having to dismantle the entire gear,” says Nico Zamzow. “For the CRS, we use a special, oil-resistant model that was developed for industrial use and can be fitted with different lenses.”

Following the endoscopic investigation, the Konecranes service experts are certain: The hoisting gear must be replaced. In addition, the cable drum, the cable drum support, the slip-ring unit, the cylinder coupling, and the motor coupling must be renewed. “Thanks to discovering the wear early on, there was no risk to safety and we were able to replace the old gear with a new one without affecting production,” explains Nico Zamzow.

“The benefits of Oil analysis as a predictive maintenance tool for identifying problems early on is proven to minimize the risk to production and safety. We, in the United Kingdom, now offer this as a standard solution to support our existing customers,” says Mark Goringe, Konecranes Industrial Service – Area Director, Mid West Europe.

Transport will remain safe

The Palm paper factory will continue to use services such as maintenance and servicing from Konecranes. Jürgen Friedmann, head of Mechanics at the Palm paper factory, is happy with what has been achieved: “Konecranes experts have had a very flexible approach to our demands for the availability and productivity of our cranes. Thanks to the oil analysis and the endoscopic investigation, our cranes will now run without issues in the years to come.”

Konecranes is one of the world’s leading brands in Lifting Businesses™ and supplies production enterprises and process manufacturing, shipyards and harbors with innovative lifting technology solutions. Besides productivity-increasing lifting solutions, Konecranes also offers customized services across the whole spectrum of lifting machinery. Konecranes has 16,200 employees at 600 locations in 50 countries. Konecranes stocks are quoted on the Helsinki stock exchange (Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd) under the abbreviation KCR1V.

Captions/sources of photos: Konecranes

[Photo 1+2+3] A deep look inside the crane gear: With the Konecranes oil analysis, wear traces, such as rust or metal particles in the gear oil, can be identified and unplanned downtime can be prevented.

[Photo 4 + 5] A closer look: The cranes in the roll warehouse of the Palm paper factory are in use at all times. For this reason, one important element of the Konecranes CRS is inspecting the crane systems for signs of wear.

[Photo 6+7] Task distribution: Konecranes experts analyze the gear oil of eight of the eleven double-girder bridge cranes that are used in the large paper machinery hall and in the fully automated roll warehouse.

For additional information:

Mark Goringe

Konecranes Industrial Service – Area Director, Mid West Europe

Konecranes Demag UK Limited

Unit 1 Charter Point, Coalfield Way

Ashby Business Park, Ashby De La Zouch

Leicestershire, LE65 1NF

United Kingdom

Tel +44 (0) 8443 246 599

www.konecranes.co.uk

Lena Ansorge

Marketing & Communications

Lena.Ansorge@konecranes.com

Tel +49 6103 7333-235

Quick, Easy and Low-Cost Digitalisation and Electronic Archiving

Feb 13, 2019 | Tech

Aachen, February 2019. ecoDMS GmbH from Aachen offers first class archiving software at fair prices. Companies and private individuals alike can use the “ecoDMS” document archive and the “ecoMAILZ” email archive for the long-term, legally conform storage of all documents, files and emails. Given the extremely fair licensing model, everyone can use this software. At a one-off license fee of 89 Euro per simultaneous connection for ecoDMS Archive and 49 Euro per user for ecoMAILZ, the products of the Aachen-based company are top of the low-cost archiving systems. The products can be purchased and used as a standalone solution.

Electronic Document Archiving with ecoDMS
Electronic document archiving with ecoDMS is more than just audit-compliant, long-term archiving of data. ecoDMS offers cross-company, cross-platform and cross-location access to all documents, information and data. Within seconds users can store, manage and retrieve incoming and outgoing documents in the archiving system. ecoDMS automatically allocates new documents based on classification templates. ecoDMS Archive manages all information that is available as or can be converted to a digital format. This includes invoices, contracts, cover letters, account statements, tables, multimedia files, drawings, orders, notes and much more. The metadata, classifications and contents of each file provide the necessary information for quick retrieval. To do so, ecoDMS offers intelligent search functions, including a full-text search. The archiving system automatically creates a full-text index when a file is archived. The system also has many more search and filter functions. A document preview allows the viewing of search results. The desktop client and the web client enable access to the database and the entire archiving system from a PC, smart phone and tablet. The system fulfils all requirements of a document archive. Apart from the many archiving and search functions, ecoDMS offers plenty more luxurious features. ecoDMS leaves nothing to be desired: It includes integrated version management, sending and exporting functions, a virtual clipboard for bundling documents, a flexible settings dialogue box where users can map their own structures and document types, an integrated notepad, an automatic resubmission system, gapless logging using a history, plugins for MS Office, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, Outlook and Thunderbird and a PDF/A printer for archiving from all printable third-party applications. The system processes are compliant with auditing standards. It complies with and fulfils the rules and requirements of the GDPR and the Generally Accepted Principles of Computerised Accounting Systems in Germany. For private individuals the software is available for free in a slightly restricted Free4Three version. A license of the full version of a purchased ecoDMS version is paid for once and is then valid for an unlimited period.

Automatic Email Archiving with ecoMAILZ
The ecoMAILZ email archive is designed for long-term, legally compliant and fully automatic archiving of incoming and outgoing emails. ecoMAILZ retrieves all emails directly from the mail server and automatically stores them in the mail archive. The two-step archiving concept of this software opens new possibilities for archiving emails. At the same time, it ensures that privacy is protected. The software is quick to install and easy to operate. The web client enables access to all archived emails from any location with a computer, smart phone and tablet. The entire administration and setup is comfortable and easy through the web client. The integrated full-text search allows quick retrieval of emails. ecoMAILZ is legally compliant and fulfils the requirements of the GDPR. Optionally, ecoMAILZ can be connected with the ecoDMS document archive. This requires a plugin which is integrated in the archiving solution. The solution also contains plugins for MS Outlook and Thunderbird to monitor the archiving status in the mail client. The software can be tested for free with up to 3,000 emails. The fee for the full version includes updates and upgrades over a period of 24 months. A user can archive and use several email accounts.

For this and more information, visit the ecoDMS GmbH website at https://www.ecodms.de.

WolfPack HDCP 2.2 to HDCP 1.4 Converter by HDTV Supply, Inc.

Feb 13, 2019 | Tech

Los Angeles, CA, February 13, 2019 — HDTV Supply, one of the nation’s top Internet providers of consumer electronics devices and related products, announced their new HDTV Supplys WolfPack HDCP 2.2 to HDCP 1.4 Converter is the best for playback of new 4K HDCP 2.2 encoded content on 4K displays with the older HDCP 1.4 standard. Most 4K televisions sold in the last few years do not support HDCP 2.2, but our WolfPack HDCP 2.2 to HDCP 1.4 Converter allows 4K video to be vividly seen. Our WolfPack HDCP 2.2 to HDCP 1.4 Converter is also a great compatibility solution for AV distribution systems running a mix of new and old 4K displays. The unit supports up to HDMI 2.0 at 10.2 GBPS products.

HDTV Supplys WolfPack HDCP 2.2 converter converts an HDCP 2.2 compliant signal to HDCP 1.4. You can connect the converter with HDCP 1.4 devices to make sure the HDCP 2.2 source be displayed on HDCP 1.4 4K displays. Our HDCP 2.2 converter is a device that sits between a 4K source and the non-HDCP 2.2 display to allow protected 4K content to pass through to the UHD display and supports HDMI 2.0 and all past versions.

HDCP 2.2 is the new copy-protection scheme for 4K UHD content. Not only is it not backward compatible but many recent 4K devices dont even support it. Source devices, including media servers and head-ends like Netflix, will encode their 4K content with this new scheme. TVs must be HDCP 2.2-enabled to play it, and everything in the video chain including switches and receivers must be compliant as well, or the display will go dark and/or display a HDCP error message. This is bad news for consumers who have purchased expensive, high-bandwidth, processor-rich switchers and receivers to accommodate 4K and only our HDCP 2.2 to HDCP 1.4 converter can help you with your existing system.

The WolfPack HDCP 2.2 to HDCP 1.4 Converter comes with Lifetime Telephone, CHAT, TEXT, FAX & Email Tech Support and is available now and can be purchased at https://www.hdtvsupply.com/hdcp-2-2-to-hdcp-1-4-converter.html

For further information contact:
Press Relations
HDTV Supply, Inc.
(800) 841-9238
FAX: (800) 435-2623
WEB: www.HDTVSupply.com
EMAIL: support@hdtvsupply.com

About HDTV Supply: HDTV Supply is one of the nation’s top manufacturers and resellers of consumer electronics accessories and related products, with more than 9,000 products. Headquartered in Los Angeles, CA. HDTV Supply’s business strategy focuses on the customers needs come first. HDTV Supply began in 2002 with the aim of products specifically built for home theater enthusiasts and for custom integrators. Many products are created in house and manufactured in the USA to exacting specifications. For further information about HDTV Supply and its products, please visit https://www.hdtvsupply.com

Contact Information
HDTV Supply, Inc.
Press Relations
800-841-9238
https://www.HDTVSupply.com