Asian paper mill increases control system utilization with ABB Advanced Services

Case Study

A Southeast Asian paper mill has 13 paper machines, which creates significant production complexity. They have relied on ABB to continually update equipment, keep productivity high, maintain predictable service costs and improve process performance.

ChallengeFine paper and stationery are made to exacting standards of quality and thickness of the paper stock. The pulp stock used to create this fine paper and stationery represents a unique challenge for the paper mill as the media is thick and sticky—combined with the additional challenges of high temperatures, steam in the vapor space, agitation, and the slightly corrosive and abrasive effects of the pulp slurry. So, mill managers must constantly measure, monitor and amend the performance of each paper machine.

Since 2003, the mill has employed a resident ABB service engineer, and used a variety of ABB services, including: the ServicePro Service Management System to manage ABB service activities; Fingerprint audits to diagnose, implement and sustain paper machine performance; training; and Automation Sentinel to ensure timely software updates.

This major Southeast Asian paper manufacturer is known for using leading-edge technology to produce a wide range of high-quality pulp and paper products. The mill is one of the world’s largest paper manufacturers with an annual paper and board production of over 1,200,000 metric tons. The mill actively promotes the use of recycled fiber in the manufacture of its fine paper and stationery.

A Southeast Asian paper mill improves equip-ment and process performance using ABB’s Advanced Services powered by ServicePort.

Timeline of Advanced Services

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016ServicePort installation with Loop Performance Monitoring Service

Added LV Drives Performance Service

Improving control utilizationImproving stock stability – Tuning Services (6 weeks/year)Added QCS Performance Monitoring Service Improving Refiner process – Refiner Finger-print and Implementation (6 weeks/year)

Added Loop Tuning Accelerator ServiceExpanded QCS Performance Monitoring Service

Added QCS Transition Performance Service Collected data from paper machines on sheet breaks transition times, moisture, etc.Added Ash Control APC (Advanced Process Control)

ABB Advanced Services

In 2012, the mill managers decided to invest in ABB Advanced Service solutions to ensure that automatic control did not erode over time. ABB Advanced Services are designed to identify variables that impede productivity, and provide recommendations to address these variables quickly and efficiently. Automating production requires processing large amounts of data, and the volume of data increases with the complexity of production. As production proceeds, variables can combine to hamper productivity; finding and mitigating these variables can be challenging. These services are partly automated to be more expeditious, and are provided by experienced ABB service engineers both at site, and remotely through the ABB ServicePort.

The ABB ServicePort is a secure, remote-enabled service delivery platform deployed at customer sites that gathers and processes

ABB Advanced Services Powered by ServicePort

large amounts of data, and performs initial analysis, so that ABB experts can more quickly help customers find and mitigate variables that impede productivity. ServicePort maximizes the use of limited resources onsite to provide daily assessments of equipment and process performance. Advanced Services powered by ServicePort identify, categorize and prioritize Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and provide views of these KPIs to users so that variables can be identified and mitigated. ServicePort is equipped with notification capabilities to send users email or text messages when KPIs exceed set ranges. To address its equipment and processes, the Southeast Asian paper mill employs four ServicePorts with the following services: 1. Loop Performance Monitoring Service; 2. LV Drives Performance Service; 3. Loop Tuning Accelerator Service; 4. QCS Performance Monitoring Service; and 5. QCS Transition Performance Service.

Customer need ABB solution What ABB solution does Customer outcome

Reduce risk of

drive failure

LV Drives

Performance Service

- Tracks the health and performance of low-

voltage drive systems

- Evaluate drives performance

- Optimum equipment performance

- Sheet break reduction

24/7 monitoring of

control loops

Control Loop

Performance

Monitoring Service

- Benchmark, correct and

sustain performance

- Identify loop and quality issues

- Tune all control loops

- Reduce weight variation

- Fast problem diagnosis

- Reduced failure risk

Continuous improvement,

including higher

availability, increased

production and

improved quality

Loop Tuning Accelerator

Service

- Provide continuous analysis of Key

Performance Indicators (KPIs)

- On-site or remote access, powered by

ABB ServicePort

- Twice-a-year performance analysis

- Configurable alerts are supplied when

KPIs are outside site-specific thresholds

- Accelerates problem solving through 24/7

visualization and analysis of control loops

- Increases availability and utilization through

reduced process variability

- Lowers maintenance, raw material and energy

costs with quick identification of process

errors or trends

- Reduces response time and travel expenses

by providing remote access to ABB experts

Improve paper quality QCS Performance Moni-

toring Service

- Measure and control papermaking per-

formance characteristics

- Improve sensor stability and

process variability

- High product quality

- Chemical consumption reduction

- Energy reduction

- Winder performance improvement

- Accelerate problem

solving and speed

transitions

- Reduce project rejects

- Fewer sheet breaks

- Quicker grade changes

- More efficient transitions

QCS Transition

Performance Service

- Collects data from paper machines (sheet

breaks, weight, moisture and speed)

- Calculates KPIs to measure times

and conditions

- Optimizes transition times, resulting

in higher production

- Automatic, non-invasive gathering and

statistical analysis of QCS transition data

- Configurable alerts when KPIs are outside

set thresholds

- On-site or remote access for customer

and ABB service personnel

ABB’s Loop Performance Monitoring Service

Mill managers wanted a service that mill engineers could use 24/7 to improve the performance of their paper machines’ automatic control loops. After consulting with ABB, mill managers decided that Loop Performance Monitoring Service could provide them with the improvements they wanted.

ABB’s Loop Performance Monitoring Service identifies and corrects automatic control loop issues to improve control performance and ensure optimum results from a control system investment. The Loop Performance Monitoring Service classifies and prioritizes issues based on severity, process area, criticality and financial impact.

LV Drives Performance Monitoring Service

LV Drives Performance Monitoring Service is a monitoring and diagnostic service that tracks the health and performance of low-voltage (LV) drives. Through early problem detection, the service helps plants increase equipment availability and avoid costly repairs. The paper mill employs the LV Drives Performance Monitoring Service on Paper Machine 5. Mill managers knew that by gathering and analyzing KPIs from their drives, they could reduce the

risk of equipment failure and ensure maximum uptime. When they learned that ABB offered an LV Drives Performance Monitoring Service that would automatically collect and analyze drives information, and provide proactive notification on emerging issues, they were immediately interested. They were confident that the LV Drives Performance Monitoring Service could provide them with the data needed to quickly identify potential issues. Shortly after the LV Drives Performance Monitoring Service was implemented, the mill had the information and analysis needed to reduce potential drives failure.

Using the LV Drives Performance Monitoring Service on Paper Machine 5, ABB evaluated the performance of 21 drives based on electrical, motion and temperature scans. Specific issues were identified that could potentially have a negative impact on drives performance. For example, five different drives were found to have temperatures above a desired threshold. ABB reported on all findings and benchmarks, and provided corrective recommendations. With drives problems clearly identified and corrected, the mill can reduce energy costs, increase throughput and maintain high product quality.

To optimize the performance of low-voltage drives, the LV Drives Performance Monitoring Service conducts periodic analyses called “Scans,” generating “Scan Reports.” In a Scan, ServicePort is used to gather and compare data to pre-determined benchmark KPIs. For LV Drives, the areas of motion, electrical and temperature are benchmarked to find trends that predict potential issues. The higher the horizontal bar, the higher the priority to investigate the root cause of indicators and resolve issues that could adversely affect drive performance.

LV Drive Performance Service: ServicePort Explorer: Data View

Control loop issues reduced from 55 percent to 25 percent which results in a reduction in BW (Basis Weight) MDL (Machine Direction Long) term variability from 1.3 to 0.8

Loop Tuning Accelerator Service

In 2015, the mill added the Loop Tuning Accelerator Service. This service gives process engineers the ability to create accurate models that greatly reduce the time needed to identify and address control loop issues. ABB’s Loop Tuning Accelerator Service uses data already gathered, analyzed and stored to quickly identify issues, so corrective tuning can take place without time- consuming and disruptive process “bump” tests. Prior to installing the Loop Tuning Accelerator Service, resident engineers took the control system off the closed loop feedback control and put into an ‘automatic’ mode of maintaining desired setpoints.

Bump tests were complicated by the need to work with the paper machine operators to get their approval before changing process variables. Moreover, the bump test data was not easy to access. Either a separate data logging session had to be initiated for the desired loops during the bump test process or large data finding had to be combed to identify and extract the required data. After the data was extracted, the loop analyzer tool was used to calculate the tuning parameters one loop at a time. Once the tuning process was completed, preparing a tuning report was time-consuming as finding figures and tables had to be extracted individually and combined to compile the final report.

Now data is automatically classified and prioritized based on severity, criticality and final impact according to KPIs tracked by the ABB Loop Tuning Accelerator Service. This data helps control engineers find the root cause of issues, leading to information that is used to improve control loop tuning. Resident engineers are able to tune around 20 loops a day instead of 5-8 loops that were possible prior to the deployment of the Loop Tuning Accelerator Service.

The report preparation time is now a tenth of what it used to be. Also, resident engineers can dedicate their time to identifying accurate process models and tuning control, so the overall efficiency of tuning has improved. The quality of reports has also improved with an easy-to-read, standardized format. The mill currently employs the Loop Tuning Accelerator Service on Paper Machines 5, 9 and 12. By using the Loop Tuning Accelerator Service, the ABB resident engineers tuned all 136 control loops on Paper Machine 5. After loop tuning, fiber stability was improved by 10 percent and refiner stability was improved by 43 percent. Mill personnel also saw improved paper machine runnability.

Below: The Loop Tuning Accelerator Service provides process engineers with control information that has already been gathered, analyzed and stored by the ABB Loop Performance Monitoring Service, then used as a basis for creating accurate process models that can be used for testing tuning parameters without affecting the process. This shortens process modeling time, which usually requires time-consuming and disruptive bump tests, thus speeding identification and correction of control loop issues. In the screen shot below, the mill managers identified a control issue using ABB Loop Tuning Acceleration Service. Before the Loop Tuning Accelerator Service was engaged, the process control shows a large swing in the loops. Once the setpoints were identified, a dramatic improvement in loop tuning was achieved resulting in increased process control.

ABB Inc. Industrial Automation Service579 Executive Campus Drive Westerville, OH 43082-8870 Phone: +1 614 818 6300E-Mail: automation.service@us.abb.com

www.abb.com

QCS Performance Monitoring Service

ABB’s Quality Control Systems (QCS) utilized by the mill are especially designed to measure and control papermaking performance characteristics. The QCS Performance Monitoring Service is used to improve sensor stability and process variability to ensure the highest possible QCS performance.

Mill managers are deeply committed to consistently producing high-quality paper, making QCS Performance Monitoring Service an important addition because the service quickly and accurately identifies potential problems. The mill uses the QCS Performance Monitoring Service on Paper Machine 9 to help improve control utilization, sensor stability and process variability.

QCS Transition Performance Service

QCS Transition Performance Service identifies, classifies and prioritizes opportunities to optimize transition times controlled by the QCS. The service uses automated data collection and analysis to quickly identify issues and ensure optimal transitions, such as product grade and shade changes.

The mill wants to continuously maximize business value by turning data insights into direct action. ABB is connecting insights into action with digital products and services, each built from our unique combination of sector knowledge, technology leadership and digital expertise.

Employing ABB Advanced Services, the paper mill has experienced measurable equipment and system improvements. By implementing ABB’s recommendations, mill managers have reduced the time required for bump tests by 70 percent and decreased the overall tuning effort by 75 percent. Using both Loop and Quality Control Performance Management Services, the mill has experienced fewer sheet breaks and lower grade recovery times, resulting in more saleable production.

Ash machine-direction variation increased after putting automatic ash control in manual mode instead of relying on the ABB QCS used to keep the machine running at peak efficiency. Once the mode was restored to automatic, the ABB QCS Performance Monitoring Service, was able to demonstrate measurable equipment and system improvements—including a reduction in basis weight variation of 40 percent, while achieving improved product quality.

...through the ServicePort Loop Tuning Accelerator Service, we are able to sustain the best performance for all the process control loops. – Mill Automation Manager