EREMA: "PredictOn:Drive", a new tool for predictive maintenance

Real-time visualisation of process and machine data holds great potential for the circular economy as a whole and for recycling processes in particular. At K 2022 EREMA launched "PredictOn:Drive", a predictive maintenance application for its recycling machines. The app can be used to monitor the condition of the main drive trains and vacuum pumps during operation to predict when maintenance needs to be performed next. The machine operator benefits from improved scheduling of maintenance work, shorter downtimes and lower costs.

"PredictOn" is the name of EREMA's new predictive maintenance package. At K, the recycling machine manufacturer presented "PredictOn:Drive" – the first tool in this package – as a solution for monitoring and predicting maintenance requirements for all main drive trains and vacuum pump stations on PET recycling machines. Behind this is an ingenious modular measurement and sensor system for real-time data acquisition and storage that is used for machine condition evaluation as well as for advanced analysis of damage location and damage spread while proposing possible countermeasures.

That is how the machine provides data to visualise the condition of the plant and enable predictions on the maintenance work necessary. "The big benefit of recognising maintenance requirements and anomalies on critical components in good time is that machine operators can respond before a problem occurs. Deploying service personnel and obtaining spare parts can be better planned using predictive maintenance and leads to higher plant availability and lower costs compared to routine or scheduled preventive maintenance. That is because we only intervene when a problem has been identified," explains Florian Schieder, who is responsible for EREMA’s development and innovation planning. EREMA currently equips all large-scale INTAREMA®, VACUREMA® and VACUNITE® plants featuring extruder diameters larger than 160 millimetres with the necessary measuring systems for drive train monitoring. Existing plants can also be retrofitted with these systems. In a next expansion stage, smaller plants as well as machines from sister company PURE LOOP are to follow.

EREMA makes this data available to its customers in its own maintenance app on the BluPort® digital customer platform, which bundles all digital assistance systems. The platform can be accessed via PC and mobile devices and offers a comprehensive suite of service and data visualisation apps that help plant operators control quality and improve machine performance. "With our apps, we want to accompany customers and their machines through all phases of the machine life cycle, starting with the purchase decision through to operation, maintenance and services, and eventually to buy-back of the used equipment years later. And all that with just one login," says Christoph Krump, who heads the Service business unit at EREMA. Using the Project Cockpit app, customers are already involved in the creation of their new machine. With this they get insights into the status of project planning, and overview of all features and a list of all the relevant contact persons in case questions arise. The Key Performance Indicators app is very popular with customers because they can use it to call up the most important data, such as throughput trends and the energy consumption of their machines, all displayed in an intuitive dashboard. Long-term archiving, a booking app for training courses and workshops, and a spare parts shop are examples of other useful tools provided by BluPort®.

From a technical standpoint, all EREMA machines ordered within the last 3 years are already equipped for use with all of these assistance systems. The app offering is constantly being expanded. The basic package is free of charge. Customers who purchase the Smart Service Package get the full version including extra content.