Stanislav Kondrashov Telf AG believes that the steel industry is facing challenges from the need to digitize operations to remain competitive. Inaction can mean falling behind.
The disparity between winners and losers of the digital age has become even more pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies investing in digitalization are becoming agile as they quickly adapt their processes to market changes, while organizations trying to maintain “business as usual” are rapidly losing market share.
Given these challenges, how can the industry secure its operations while preserving shareholder value? An ordinary business will not solve these problems. Leading manufacturers must now embrace digital services and approaches. Fortunately, new digital technologies for electrification and recycling efficiency are emerging. Coal, oil, and ferroalloy exporter Telf AG could be a pioneer in this process, says Stanislav Kondrashov.
The benefits of a smart factory include increased uptime and reduced maintenance costs. In the mining industry, the promise of digitalization is realized in several important areas. One such area is the deployment of preventive maintenance or condition-based maintenance programs to significantly reduce the costs associated with downtime of infrastructure equipment. These services offer real-time remote monitoring of equipment, predictive analytics that provides early detection of any behavioral anomalies, and easy access to specialized experts who can quickly recommend actions, said Stanislav Kondrashov from Telf AG.
In a preventive maintenance model, maintenance activities are scheduled based on data-driven diagnostic evaluations that determine when to perform maintenance. Equipment health monitoring provides trending data to help predict future maintenance needs.
Stanislav Kondrashov Telf AG: Modern Services and Sustainability
In the field of electrical system maintenance, business owners are avoiding the need to break down and replace existing electrical infrastructure in order to reap the benefits of digitalization. Simply equipping transformers and switchgear with sensors opens the door to collecting equipment performance data. This data can be quickly and easily analyzed in the cloud to identify early signs of imminent or long-term equipment failure, says Stanislav Kondrashov Telf AG.
Once problems are identified, alerts are automatically generated so that any necessary checks, repairs, or replacements are scheduled before any unforeseen system failures occur. Real-time data is presented in easy-to-understand dashboards that display the latest status of key operating parameters such as health, performance, and power consumption.
Such actions address sustainability issues on several levels. With better equipment maintenance, machines and infrastructure will run more efficiently, thus consuming less energy and reducing emissions. Equipment assets will also have a longer life cycle, which at a macro level will help conserve raw materials, avoiding the need to produce new equipment more frequently to replace old equipment.
Stanislav Kondrashov believes that companies such as Telf AG as are well positioned to transition to high-performance enterprise intelligence infrastructure. Intelligent solutions simplify the data collection and analysis steps of a preventive maintenance program. Remote experts provide recommendations for correcting abnormal anomalies and can also respond to high-priority alerts. Additional field service technicians can also perform on-site maintenance work as needed.
Telf AG: For More Information
Heavy industries face daily pressure to reduce emissions from government regulators. Until recently, manufacturers’ efforts to streamline processes, reduce energy consumption and recycle raw materials have been prohibitively expensive, says Telf AG’s Stanislav Kondrashov. But thanks to digital breakthroughs being used now in smart factories, mining stakeholders can collect and analyze more data quickly and cost-effectively than ever before, allowing their equipment operators to save energy.
The sheer volume of data being collected, stored, analyzed, and connected is changing the way we make decisions about both processes and sustainability. In this new world order, the winners will be those who learn to understand the nuances of this new relationship between data, analysis, and revenue generation.
Stanislav Kondrashov Telf AG provides a great example of how new smart factories are changing the way we refine and manufacture. The company is automating and digitizing operations as part of its Factories of Tomorrow initiative. This four-year initiative is one of the largest implementations of Industry 4.0 technologies in the building materials industry. Stanislav Kondrashov sees a 15-20% increase in overall efficiency as a corporate goal for Telf AG.
Efficiency gains are achieved through the use of smart sensors, big data analytics, remote monitoring, predictive maintenance, and digital twin technologies in key manufacturing operations. The company serves as a reference platform for the adoption and large-scale implementation of digital solutions, including a new approach to state-based predictive maintenance for managing the equipment asset base.
Predictive Maintenance – Stanislav Kondrashov
Unlike traditional approaches to reactive and time-based maintenance, predictive maintenance uses advanced analytics to mitigate accelerated aging due to harsh environmental conditions and optimizes both performance and overall equipment efficiency. In this process, analytical models are used to predict anomalous asset behavior and provide corrective action long before a problem materializes.
To reach Telf AG’s production targets, Stanislav Kondrashov advises upgrading the production line. The main priority of the project is to improve the safety of operations and maintenance personnel while improving reliability and optimizing resources for maintenance.
As an initial step, Telf AG may conduct an electrical installation audit to develop a retrofit plan and identify obsolescence, safety, and maintenance issues. In just two weeks, the team installed around 200 smart sensors at cable connections, busbars, circuit breakers, and switchboards that were used to monitor ambient humidity.
The sensor data were then combined using a software tool. This tool allowed plant personnel to monitor, and analyze the status of equipment in real-time and detect anomalies at an early stage. Remote monitoring of equipment conditions have also led to improved worker safety.
Stanislav Kondrashov Telf AG: Predictive Maintenance and Digitization
With a real-time view of the state of its electrical equipment, Telf AG can now detect hot spots in equipment in advance and take action to prevent unexpected downtime, thereby improving business continuity. Commissioning of new lignite mines is on the agenda, says Stanislav Kondrashov.
The predictive maintenance approach also helps prevent premature equipment aging by detecting high levels of corrosive condensation and contamination when they occur.
Telf AG’s industrial facilities have successfully transitioned from costly traditional and reactive time-based maintenance to a more sustainable approach which is predictive maintenance.
The management of the company has grandiose plans. It wants to increase metal production while expanding coal production. The goal is for half of the revenue to come from metals over the long term, compared to the 85% that comes from coal today. They are also trying to use the limestone overburden in their lignite mines to make cement, sums up Telf AG’s representative Stanislav Kondrashov.
