SmartVibro implementation in the Middle East
"Smart" tools are digital systems for monitoring the health of equipment. In a Green Anode Plant (GAP), the vibro-compactor is the most complex and critical equipment and often the bottleneck in production. Its monitoring is therefore essential to maintain and increase the GAP overall performance. This is why SmartVibro has been the first "Smart" tool developed by Fives Solios to monitor the operation of the Xelios and assist in its preventive maintenance. The "Smart" tools also allow to remotely and continuously send information to Fives' experts, in order to analyze it more easily and to feed the continuous improvement loop of our products. This information is then helping the Service teams to communicate more effectively with customers by better identifying and qualifying their pains and thus better targeting the interventions.
The SmartVibro project was initiated in 2020 with the support of Fives CortX. At the beginning of 2021, Qatalum accepted to install SmartVibro as part of a cooperation agreement that would allow us to access the data remotely in order to exploit it and benefit from a real feedback.
At the beginning of December 2021, a Fives expert went on site to install and start-up the solution and to train the customer in the use of the tool.
For Qatalum, this project addressed three objectives:
— Improving maintenance monitoring through digitization for better planning of interventions,
— Monitoring machine performance in terms of overall equipment efficiency,
— Remote access to machine performance.
Among the factors contributing to the success of this project were the excellent collaboration between the Fives Solios and Fives CortX's teams, a highly motivated customer who did everything possible to help us solve the difficulties we faced, and the support of Fives ECL with its experience acquired during the implementation of SMARTCrane.
Throughout 2022, regular exchanges are planned with the customer to collect data for analysis and valorization.
A great collaborative project that perfectly meets the willingness of aluminium producers to enter the digital era.