Crusher
Sensors on a crushing plant and its crushers measure pressure, temperature, vibration and revolutions during operation. Operators detect leaks in the oil circuit and drops in performance early, procure spare parts in time and avoid unexpected downtime.
Crusher at a glance
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Crushing plant monitoring: detect oil leaks and wear early
Rock crushers are often machines the size of a house with up to 650 sensors. To make readings from pascals to rpm evaluable together, Optalio first creates an industrial IT infrastructure with firewalls for OT and IT. OPC UA interfaces transfer the machine data via data pipelines to a secure cloud, where AI learns the machine’s normal state and highlights deviations. Alternatively, customers store the data on their own premises via VPN or process it on edge devices. Using ICONICS software on Microsoft Azure, FLSmidth visualises indicators such as power consumption, hydraulic oil moisture and oil leaks in the hydraulic system; alarm limits trigger emails to the monitoring teams.
The examples come from mining and the cement industry, mostly as condition monitoring or predictive maintenance. FLSmidth monitors its customers’ plants from several control centres around the world. Using an ICONICS dashboard, the team detected an oil leak in a customer’s crusher and prevented considerable downtime. Optalio focuses on rock crushers in cement production that break up limestone using hydraulics and high pressure: if the piston repeatedly jumps while pressure is being maintained, this indicates leaks in the oil circuit. The aim is to find faults early and plan maintenance.
Crushing plant monitoring: frequently asked questions
How can a mining crusher be monitored remotely?
A mining crusher can be monitored from a central control centre if its signals flow into a cloud platform. FLSmidth uses ICONICS software on Microsoft Azure for this: GraphWorX64 dashboards show trend values, and alarm limits send emails to the monitoring teams. They analyse the trends and contact the customer when necessary. AlarmWorX64 and ReportWorX64 produce periodic reports that are delivered to customers automatically.
Why does crusher monitoring matter in limestone crushing?
In cement production, the crusher breaks up limestone, one of the basic raw materials, and is exposed to heavy loads in the process. Performance drops or total failures therefore occur again and again. Optalio uses AI to evaluate sensor data from such rock crushers: the model captures the normal state and makes deviations visible. The goal is to detect critical conditions early, before the machine loses performance or fails unexpectedly.
How are leaks detected in a hydraulic crusher?
Leaks in the hydraulic system show up in indicators that can be monitored continuously and given alarm limits. In Optalio’s approach, a piston that repeatedly jumps while pressure is maintained indicates a leak in the oil circuit. At customer plants, FLSmidth tracks oil leaks in the hydraulic system and the moisture content of the hydraulic oil; if a value exceeds its limit, the monitoring team is emailed. This is how an oil leak in a crusher was detected early.
Which sensors does a quarry crusher need?
A crusher is fitted with sensors for pressure, temperature, vibration and revolutions, with up to 650 on large machines. Their readings are initially unrelated, ranging from pascals to degrees Celsius and rpm. Optalio therefore converts the machine data into an evaluable format through data engineering and transfers it to the cloud via OPC UA before the AI builds a model from it.
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