Optimal use of resources that are used up regularly

One of FitMech's clients is a book printing house, which wanted to maximize use of knives in machines cutting the edges of finished books. These knives would wear out over time and had to be replaced. This generated production downtime and made it difficult to work on individual orders, and most of all - it generated significant costs.

Based on the observation of the knife operation, the operator made a decision to replace it. Fearing of damaging the books, knives were preventively replaced - even when they were not fully blunted. An experienced operator could only estimate whether the knife on the machine was new or used.

The management, being aware that the knives, before being replaced, could each time make about several dozen, if not several hundred more work cycles, before the blocks of books begin to be destroyed, decided to eliminate the subjectivity of assessing the condition of the knives by operators.

The printing house needed a tool that would allow to estimate the actual degree of wear of the knives in order to avoid their premature replacement and incurring unreasonably high costs. Additionally, fewer knife changes should reduce downtime and increase the efficiency of the entire process.

The printing house decided to monitor the degree of wear of the knives using vibration sensors provided by the FitMech. The duller the knives, the greater the vibration level detected by sensors installed in their vicinity. After exceeding the set vibration ceiling, the FitMech system informs that the knives need to be replaced. Thanks to this:

1. the knives are used optimally,
2. less books are destroyed,
3. downtime has decreased and production efficiency has increased,
4. the procurement department can plan purchases based on real consumption without generating unnecessary costs.