ASSET LIFE EXPERT (ALEX)YOUR INTELLIGENT ASSISTANT
FOR SEAMLESS PLANT AVAILABILITY

primetals.com

DIGITAL ASSISTANCEFOR YOUR STEEL PLANT
SUPPORTIVE, CONNECTED, & LEARNING

WHERE ALEX CAN ASSISTYOU IN YOUR STEEL PLANT:• Monitoring mechanicalequipment, like a looper, coiler,
or edger in a hot strip mill,influencing material quality• Monitoring hydraulic systems,
like a wear of servo valves
or loss of pressure in theaccumulator, ultimately
influencing product quality

THE CHALLENGE
The last few decades have seen steel
plants add more and more sensors andsystems so that more and more data
can be collected and analyzed. The
objective is clear: by gathering moredata, plants can gain more valuable
insights about the current “healthstatus” of their systems, and as a result
production can be optimized in termsof quality, productivity, and flexibility.
It’s all about remaining competitive in
the global steel market.

THE SOLUTION:ASSET LIFE EXPERT (ALEX)
Primetals Technologies has developed
an intelligent digital assistant called
Asset Life Expert (ALEX) specificallyto assist operators and maintenanceengineers in the proper managementof the sea of data and alerts within asteel plant.
ALEX can assist at:• Blast furnaces• Converters

The collection of “big data” has been
facilitated by a dramatic drop in thecost of hard drives and solid-statedrives. But the wealth of systems,information, and alerts can no longer
be handled by humans alone—not
even by experienced operators or
maintenance engineers. The growing
connectivity of different aggregatesin a steel plant also increases thecomplexity of collected information
and adds unseen interdependenciesbetween data sets.

• Electric arc furnaces• Continuous casting machines• Plate and hot strip mills• Cold rolling mills• Monitoring control loops
which can lose their dynamic
behaviors and cause a drop in
product performance• Monitoring of slow-rotating
bearings, e.g. as used forsteelmaking converters
and ladle turrets, that cansignificantly influence
productivity• Supervising smaller drivesof bearings such as those inprocessing lines by analyzing
the motor current• Classical vibration
monitoring for rotating parts,
automatically monitored or via
input of manual measurements• Monitoring of process KPIs
such as strip thickness
deviations caused by work rolleccentricity• Process lines• Monitoring of automationequipment such as CPU load,
memory space, run time, bussystem check, and so on• Dry dedusting systems• And many others• High-speed rod, wire, bar andsection roling mills• and more

ALEX from Primetals Technologies is asmart, centralized expert system that provides your operators with digital assistanceand increases the availability of your steelplant.

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ASSET LIFE EXPERT (ALEX)YOUR INTELLIGENT ASSISTANT
FOR SEAMLESS PLANT AVAILABILITY

SUCCESS STORYONE HOUR PLANNED WORK PREVENTSA SEVEN-HOUR LOSS OF PRODUCTION

Asset Life Expert (ALEX) from Primetals Technologies helps operators to manage the huge amount of alarms and warnings in a steel plant.

The ALEX installation at a hot strip mill in Mexico warned the maintenance department of an inaccuracy in the roll force measurement,
recommended to calibrate the measurement system and prevented a production loss of seven hours.

SOLUTION
ALEX acts as a smart, centralized expert system for intelligent condition monitoring including e.g. also classicalvibration monitoring.
ALEX digitalizes know-how based on plant operation practice, so that users benefit from Primetals Technologies’automation, production process, and metallurgical expertise.

• Learning: allows users to contribute their own know-how• Reliable: intervenes only when needed• Scalable: based on a modular concept with functionalities
that can be continuously updated and extended byPrimetals Technologies

ALEX guides and assists operators and maintenanceengineers through their daily tasks, offering clear statusinformation and recommending intelligent actions.

BENEFITSALEX can be integrated with various traditional condition
monitoring systems and other data sources.

• Direct access to numerous condition monitoring
evaluation packages from Primetals Technologies andother data sources

CHARACTERISTICS• Precise and validated status information about
monitored equipment and processes• Intuitive: provides status information in a clear, userfriendly way, including online plant health status and full
mobile access• Intelligent support for defining fast actions to properly
handle alarms and warnings• Connected: interconnects different steel plants andvisualize information in one central system• Communicative: offers standardized interfaces to othersystems, e.g. ITR vibration analyses or 3rd party systems• Supportive: recommends intelligent actions and provide
information that combines the plant operation experienceand expertise of Primetals Technologies based on
advanced analysis techniques
4• Fast and easy access to information about the conditionof one or more plants via one central system• 24/7 available digitalized know-how of experienced
senior operators and Primetals Technologies• Quick document access linking monitoring functions torelevant information• Attractive benefit-cost ratio with flexible expansion
options

Scenario
ALEX warned the maintenancedepartment of an inaccuracy
in the roll force measurement.
By automatically analyzing thesensor readings in ALEX, anabnormal offset in the force
signal was found. ALEX provided
the correct recommendation
to calibrate the measurement
system.
The work was scheduled andcompleted during the nextplanned maintenance stop. One
single hour of planned work
prevented a production loss ofseven hours.

Results• Detection of incorrect motor
behavior caused by a broken
temperature sensor

Added values
What the operators of the hot
strip mill valued most about theinstallation of ALEX:• Bearing abnormalities of a
newly installed work roll, whichcaused problems controlling
strip thickness• Easy to use and intuitive• Memory overflow error in aserver was detected early—
meaning that the server
remained in a healthy state.

• Useful monitoring functions• Immediate warning andrecommended actions whenproblems are detected• A logical error was found in theexisting automation and fixed
after an analysis.

5HOW ASSET LIFE EXPERT (ALEX)CAN HELP YOU
TO INCREASE PLANT AVAILABILITY
AND REDUCE MAINTENANCE COSTSALARMS AND WARNINGSAs a steel plant operator you might be frequently
overwhelmed by a steady stream of alarms andwarnings from various sources.

DATA ACQUISITION

Raw data

Quality
information

SMART CENTRALIZED EXPERT SYSTEMALEX evaluates these alarms and warnings using advanced
analysis techniques, factoring in additional signals and information such as operational practice know-how, and provides aclearer and faster overview of the condition of your plants.

EXPERT SYSTEM

Manual offline
data input

Process models(level 2)

Technologicalcontrols (level 1)

Dedicatedsensors

3rd partysystems

CMAS (Condition Monitoringand Analysis System)

Long-term
data storage

Advanced analysis& evaluation

DIGITAL ASSISTANCE

ALEX provides a fast overview of the status of your plants,
with precise and validated information. ALEX recommends
intelligent actions that help you to avoid unplanned downtimes and achieve consistently high product quality.

IMPROVED LIFE QUALITY OF YOUR ASSETS

ALEX increases your plant availability, reduces
maintenance costs, provides online information
about the health status of your plant, and helps you
to optimize equipment lifetime.

EFFICIENT DATA ANALYSIS, VALUABLE INSIGHTS, & INTELLIGENT RECOMMENDED ACTIONS

Dashboards
and reporting

Know-howmanagement

Recommended
actions

Modular andscalable

m.predict (expert analysisand reporting service)

Intuitive visualizationand mobile accessto preprocessed information

Recommended actions
to handle alarms and warnings
based on operational practiceKnow-how management,
combining your know-how with thatof Primetals Technologies

Easy and fast analysis
via charts, tip boxes, zoomable timelineand data picker with snap function

Direct link to process dataacquisition systems
to visualize detailed information

Additional information
via direct links to the technicaldocumentation

Prescriptive
maintenance

ASSET LIFE EXPERT (ALEX)

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Primetals Technologies Austria GmbHA Group Company of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

Turmstrasse 444031 Linz
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Brochure No.: T10-1-N743-L9-P-V2-EN
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