Polysius
Digital Services
A specific tool for a specific question.
Nine services, nine questions
With our digital services we provide innovative solutions for specific problems. By staying at the forefront of digital advancements, we offer the latest and most relevant technologies — and each one is narrow on purpose. None of them is a platform you have to adopt; each answers one question.
Eight of the nine tell you something. The ninth tells you without being asked.
We are close, even if you are far away
Thanks to our tools for advanced remote support, our experts provide real-time on-site assistance for your immediate troubleshooting as well as for your regular maintenance. Online live video support transmits the sounds and images of your work scene straight to our experts, so we can follow your on-site view closely and assist you quickly, effectively and, above all, economically.
Our equipment is tailored for use in tough conditions and gives you maximum freedom of motion for the use of your hands. For immediate assistance, though, no special equipment is needed at all – a smartphone is enough.
How it works
Our regional and local experts support you via PC, tablet or smartphone – wherever in the world they are
You reach them via smartphone, tablet or data glasses – no matter where your job site is located
During the live support, videos and screenshots can be made and markers set in the live image to guide your team
Whenever necessary, our experts provide data sheets, technical diagrams, checklists and other documents
All of these documents remain available as documentation after the session
Your service advantages
Expert knowledge on site via live support
Fast assistance, tailored to your needs
Worldwide service available
No special equipment needed
Significant cost savings
Less downtime through faster service availability
Two more ways to reach the same experts
Remote Assist Automation
Our virtual control room enables us to support you with solutions for very specific problems in automation and electrical issues. Our specially qualified competence centre for automation provides several different, efficient methods of technical assistance:
Remote diagnostics
Active interventions in the automation system
Support of your on-site maintenance technicians
Remote Operating Support
Our highly qualified experts have many years of experience in commissioning and in supporting operations on site. Conducting these services remotely saves the travel time:
Operational support during commissioning and in day-to-day plant operation
Monitoring of your plant’s operational and quality parameters
Analyses of failures and downtimes, and measures for improvement
Support for recommissioning and the determination of a new optimal operating point after modifications
Four ways to reach us
- Data glasses
- Specially designed and tailored for use in tough conditions, giving maximum freedom of motion for the use of your hands.
- Smartphone
- The fastest route to an expert. Live video in both directions, from wherever the job site is
- Tablet
- A larger screen for shared documents, diagrams and checklists during the session
- PC
- For control room and office situations, where the question is about data and settings rather than about a machine in front of you
The service that does not wait to be called
Condition monitoring is an automated system developed to detect imminent malfunctions and damage on certain equipment, through high-frequency data monitoring and automatic data evaluation. Four systems watch four components, and each one answers a question that a walk through the plant cannot.
Four system cards, amber
Gearbox monitoring – Gears and bearings monitored at high frequency. Where a possible failure is detected, the system generates failure information automatically. Answers: Is damage developing inside the gearbox?
Radar-based hot cyclone monitoring – Radar level measurement gives efficient and dependable congestion detection in the preheater cyclones, without a radioactive gamma source. Answers: Is a cyclone starting to block?
Kiln tyre temperature monitoring – During heating up the shell heats faster than the tyre. Both temperatures are monitored, and a rapid rise in the difference raises an alarm. Answers: Is the heating-up procedure straining the shell?
Kiln slip measurement – The difference between kiln speed and tyre speed, monitored continuously as an indication of the friction between the two. Answers: Is the friction still sufficient?
Gearbox monitoring — where the automated system meets our experts
What the system does on its own: it monitors the gears and the bearings of the gearbox at high frequencies, evaluates the data automatically, and generates failure information without a person watching.
What our experts add: in addition, process data are submitted and can be evaluated by our domain experts. Root cause analysis becomes possible and recommendations can be given — and that is what leads to better remote service support.
Radar instead of a gamma source
Stringent government regulations for radioactive gamma sources made an alternative necessary. Radar-based level measurement is that alternative: efficient and dependable congestion detection in preheater cyclones, so action can be taken as soon as a build-up appears. This early intervention prevents critical incidents and production losses, and keeps the operational process smooth.
Two readings at the same contact surface
Two of the four systems watch the same place — where the kiln shell meets the tyre. One protects it during heating up, the other watches how it behaves in normal operation.
Kiln tyre temperature monitoring
During heating up, the kiln shell heats up more quickly than the kiln tyre. A slow heating-up procedure is therefore mandatory.
Different temperatures between shell and tyre can lead to high tensions and, in the worst case, to cracks in the shell and in the tyre. To avoid this, both temperatures are monitored. In case of a quick increase in the temperature difference an alarm is created, so that the operator can react accordingly.
Kiln slip measurement
The kiln tyre slip measurement monitors the difference between kiln speed and tyre speed.
That difference is an indication of whether the friction between shell and tyre is still sufficient, or whether the packing plates need to be changed. It turns a judgement call into a reading.
Digital technologies, each one aimed at a problem you can name.
From what is happening at the plant to the right tool
Nine services is a lot to choose from, and the names do not tell you which one fits. This table does. Find your situation in the left-hand column — and if none of them fits, the last row always does.
| Your situation | Service |
| A machine has stopped and my technician needs an expert looking at it with him — now | polysius® connect remote service |
| We are doing a planned maintenance job, or commissioning, and want an expert on call | polysius® connect remote service |
| Something in the automation or electrical system is misbehaving and we cannot locate it | Remote Assist Automation |
| The plant is running, but not at the operating point we want | Remote Operating Support |
| A gearbox has failed on us before and we do not want to be surprised again | Condition Monitoring — gearbox monitoring |
| Cyclone blockages keep costing us production, or we want to replace a gamma source | Condition Monitoring — radar-based hot cyclone monitoring |
| We want the kiln protected during heating up, and the slip watched in operation | Condition Monitoring — kiln tyre temperature and slip |
| We are planning a conversion and need millimetre-accurate coordinates of what is already there | PlantScan3D |
| We need the wear on a crusher or a high-pressure grinding roll analysed | PlantScan3D |
| We need the kiln axis, ovality and shell deformation measured — without stopping | polscan® |
| We need to inspect something that cannot be reached safely, or survey the quarry | Drone Service |
| Something is vibrating and nobody can see where the movement comes from | Motion Magnification |
| Something is making a noise and nobody can locate it | SoundCam |
| We need to identify and order the right spare part, quickly | PSPN |
| We need a physical model of a machine or plant part to show someone | 3D Printing |
| I am not sure which of the nine it is | Write to us — one address for the whole portfolio |
Where a measurement becomes a decision
A scan, an alarm or an acoustic image is data. On its own it changes nothing. Every one of these nine services is built so that the result can be handed to someone who acts on it — which is why the portfolio sits next to the field services rather than apart from them.