Plant monitoring in steel industry

Thanks to the advancement of sensor technology, signal analysis and data technology, the diagnosis of the machine condition has become an effective tool with a high potential for innovative maintenance strategies even though there are multiple reserves against the use of such systems in practice. This article is a critical description of the current situation of condition-based maintenance in the steel industry from the perspective of a large-scale industrial user. The article deals with various interpretations of the term condition monitoring and the resulting demand profiles and selection criteria. It also brings up central issues such as the identification of limiting values - What makes a characteristic value a critical characteristic value? and pay-back-related questions - Which forecasting reliability justifies which investment volume? This holds out the prospect of new ways and solutions for more intensive and practice-oriented use of condition-based diagnostic techniques in modern, and thus value creating maintenance approaches. The provided information is based on personal experience as well as knowledge obtained during cross-company research work on projects initiated by the Association for the Promotion of the Research into and Application of Operating Stability Know-how in the Metallurgical Industry (VBFEh).