Rolling mill monitoring: ESA for auxiliary and main drive motors

Hot and cold rolling are high-energy processes. The large stands usually already have vibration monitoring systems. But the hundreds of electric motors around the mill — roller tables, coilers, shears, hydraulic units, furnace fans — are often maintained "to schedule" or after failure. This is exactly where ESA without sensors on the machine wins.

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Risk map around the stand

Assembly	Typical failure	What ESA sees
Roller table drive	bearing, winding, overload	current, harmonics, mechanics
Coiler / uncoiler	unbalance, looseness	torque modulation
Cooling / emulsion pumps	cavitation, blockage	process anomalies
ID fans / furnace fans	unbalance, blades	mechanics plus electrics
Main drive (where current is accessible)	early electrical faults	complement to vibration

Application page: rolling mills.

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Why vibration does not cover the whole fleet

1. Access — roller tables sit in the scale zone and sensors do not last long.
2. Numbers — 50–200 motors per line; full vibration monitoring is expensive.
3. Electrical faults — vibration cannot see an inter-turn short.
4. VFDs — frequent starts and reversals on roller tables complicate thresholds.

Comparison of ESA / MCSA / vibration — for the auxiliary fleet ESA is usually the better fit.

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Artesis rollout scheme

Step 1 — AMT Pro route (2–4 weeks)

Survey every auxiliary system motor: 5–7 minutes per machine, no shutdown. The result is a ranking of red / amber drives. See AMT Pro route diagnostics.

Step 2 — online e-MCM (90-day pilot)

On 8–15 critical drives (hydraulic unit, coiler, key roller tables, cooling pumps) — e-MCM. Plan: 90-day pilot.

Step 3 — IoT

Several bays / sites in one dashboard — Artesis IoT.

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Combining with SDT and Bently

Layer	Instrument	Task
Large stands / rolls	Bently Nevada	vibration, protection setpoints
Motor fleet	Artesis ESA	mechanics + electrics + process
Bearings, leaks, steam	SDT ultrasound	route, lubrication, leaks

Integration: vibration + ultrasound + electrical monitoring, mining + CHP case.

For belt and chain drives on roller tables — ultrasound + ESA.

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Typical ESA "finds" on a rolling line

1. Roller table overload when a slab jams — current rises before the failure.
2. Emulsion pump cavitation — a process alert before impeller destruction.
3. VFD harmonics — see harmonics in electric drives.
4. Rotor fault on a furnace fan — 5 typical faults.

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Conclusion

For a steel plant the optimum is not to choose between vibration and ESA, but to split the roles: Bently on the stands, Artesis on the motor fleet, SDT on leaks and route bearings. Start with AMT Pro on one mill, then e-MCM on the bottlenecks.

KEG TRK supplies Artesis, SDT and Bently Nevada in Kazakhstan: +7 (7172) 64-08-69.