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ACORN steals the show with asset management solutions

Condition monitoring systems offer an insight into the condition of machine components such as bearings and seals, providing an early indication of a developing fault, before it causes machine failure. This enables repairs to be planned into scheduled maintenance, helping businesses to reduce their unplanned downtime and keep unexpected costs to a minimum. This is particularly important in the steel industry where demands are high and any loss of production could lead to missing deadlines, causing the loss of supply contracts.

ACORN was contacted in January 2019 to help with the selection of possible asset management systems, as many companies are finally waking up to the plethora of benefits these systems provide. This in particular is owing to the current market pressures, as companies focus on maintaining and monitoring key areas of the process to ensure maximum efficiency.

After receiving a call from a customer interested in implementing Asset Management, the ACORN wheels were put in motion and following a thorough evaluation of the sites needs and pain points, it was concluded that the best solution in this instance was SKF’s IMX-8 Multilog Online System. The system was considered along with several similar competitor products.

Following the suggestion of SKF’s Multilog system, ACORN wanted to ensure the product on offer to the customer was the best system that specifically suited to their needs. In order to do this, a product demonstration was organised with SKF technical staff and our very own Bearings Product Manager.

The customer was incredibly impressed and made the decision to implement the SKF IMX-8 Multilog Online System. The unit provides a complete system for early fault detection, prevention and automatic advice for correcting existing machine conditions. As with modern and developing systems it incorporates RS485 and Ethernet connectivity to provide easy access to vibration and temperature data and equally importantly integration with other systems.

An important influencing factor for the decision to purchase the system from ACORN was the knowledge that if support was required, ACORN could be on site quickly to remedy any problems that occur. The steel manufacturer was particularly keen to deal with ‘real people’ and not answering machines!

ACORN can supply personalised and responsive service to customers with dedicated divisions headed by our very own product experts. In addition to this, ACORN also offer a 24 hour out of hours service this means that one of our experienced sales team can always be ready at the end of the phone at even the most critical times. Contact your local sales team today to find out how we could help you to optimise your productivity.