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>> Corus reduce Energy Wastage thanks to V-Belt Monitoring System
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Reduction in energy wastage and huge savings for Corus thanks to Senssystems V-belt monitoring system

Corus Group understands the need to monitor its v-belt’s use of energy and wastage. By working with Senssystems not only is it now able to reduce its energy bill, but also maintain production and keep staff out of harm’s way.

Corus is a subsidiary of Tata Steel, Europe's second largest steel producer, with annual revenues of around £12 billion, and a crude steel production of over 20 million tons.

With over 42,000 employees worldwide, Corus comprises three operating divisions; Strip products, Building systems and Long Products & Distribution.

Unchecked V-belt energy usage

In the process of making steel, a great deal of energy is consumed. At the three
South Yorkshire sites of Corus Long Product division, this usage and any wastage of energy had not previously been monitored in a structured and methodical way.

Corus was aware it was wasting energy, and set up a team, tasked with looking into production and energy management at the South Yorkshire sites including Stocksbridge.

Chris Spenceley, energy services engineer at Corus, said: “We need to monitor and control our energy consumption. Our role is to look for, and evaluate new products and services that will save Corus energy.”

There are a variety of belts used in the production of steel. V-belts are a common choice in fan drive systems and are used for extraction of fumes, from furnaces, and for forced ventilation. By their nature, V-belts tend to wear, and therefore slip or creep. This reduces efficiency, and the power wasted can quickly add up to substantial extra energy costs.

Spenceley said: “We have a number of heat treatment furnaces at the Stocksbridge site equipped with combustion air and fume extraction fans, which are powered by large motors. They are fuelled by either natural gas or heavy fuel oil. We therefore also have lots of V-belts. While most obvious safety systems are closely monitored, the V-belt is often given low priority, if any and you tend to forget about them.”

Corus did not have a structured V-belt slip monitoring system in place. Previously, when it came to inspecting them, the Corus maintenance team used only two checks. The first check was to listen and ask the question ‘Does the belt sound like it is slipping?’ A ‘squealing’ sound indicated that the belt might be slipping and need replacing. If it was not ‘squealing’ then it was deemed that it didn’t need replacing or adjusting. The second check was simply to see if a belt was broken.

A failed V-belt means the furnace could be shut down for three to four hours and steel in the process could be scrapped or need additional treatment.

“In critical areas we can’t afford them to fail, and therefore we change the belts twice a year during planned shut downs, to ensure they are replaced before their expected failure time - whether needed or not. This incurs us additional costs.”

Spenceley said: “We needed to know where in the plant we could make savings, because if you can’t monitor it, you can’t manage it.”

Benefits of monitoring

Corus agreed to work with Sheffield-based Senssystems, an electronic engineering software development specialist. It agreed to trial Senssystem’s V-Belt Monitoring Systems on the 80kW transmission drive, which is fitted to the exhaust fan for one of its two continuous reheating furnaces at Stocksbridge.

The Senssystems V-belt monitoring system captures, computes, and indicates in real time the state of the transmission system to maintenance personnel, both locally and remotely. The system uses simple sensor inputs to measure the drive and load speeds on the V-belt transmission, and then calculates the difference with a microcontroller. The microcontroller is also equipped with an intelligent algorithm, which determines the running state of the transmission. The algorithm is capable of distinguishing between working slip (mandatory) and fault slip (energy wasting), which is determined by analysing dynamic slip phenomena. Based on several parameters, the algorithm evaluates the required maintenance action, which is then encoded and transmitted, in what can be a variety of formats and protocols.

Over a number of months, sample data was collected. The results were compelling. In just one sample period of monitoring the belt, over 4.3 days of continuous running, Senssystems confirmed that the transmission drive was only running at times at 82% efficiency. Accepted parameters within the industry are that V-belts should provide peak efficiency of between 95% and 98% when first installed.

This slippage was then translated into the costs to Corus. Assuming that the loss is constant over a year, the fan is at full speed and working continuously 24/7 over 48 weeks, this would equate to over £9,290 of energy wasted from just one V-belt drive system. As Corus at the time did not have a monitoring system, this wastage would have gone undetected until the next plant-wide shutdown, because it was neither making the tell tale squealing, nor was it broken.

“We were expecting slippage between 3% and 20%. However we were surprised to see that we were getting up to 18% slippage without any other indication that the belts were not correctly adjusted.” said Spenceley.

Conditional maintenance

Corus knew it was not changing or adjusting the belts at the right time. Now with the monitoring system, it can decide when it would be best to change them, rather than having to wait for either the plant to shut down or have to respond very quickly when a belt snaps.

Spenceley said: “The staff at Senssystems have been great to work with. They came up with a great idea for a solution to an industry-wide problem. We found them to be flexible and responsive. They listened to our needs and adapted the monitoring system to meet them. We worked very well with Senssystems and are happy to continue working with them.”

Throughout the trial, Corus suggested a number of output options the Senssystems monitoring system could offer. These included displaying the data as a percentage of slip; a klaxon; display lights; a chart that records output and events; and a radio transmitter. The transmitter would mean that a V-belt in far-flung parts of the plant does not need to have a qualified engineer visit the equipment as frequently as before...

While the trial study continues, it is Corus’s aim to look at each belt-driven asset. It will conduct a risk assessment to the organisation, including health and safety issues. It will calculate the cost to the business of down time and loss of production, should that asset fail. It will then evaluate whether the belt requires a Senssystems monitoring system fitted.

Further information about the SensSlip V-Belt Monitoring System

The SensSlip V-Belt Monitoring is designed and manufactured by Senssystems Ltd. Please contact us for sales information regarding the SensSlip system, or to discuss the benefits of v-belt monitoring in a specific industrial application. Tel: +44(0) 1142 541241 or alternatively, Email: info@senssystems.com