SMARTCrane, a Fives’ Digital Solution for Aluminium Production Optimization

Pot tending machines (PTM) play a vital role in supporting the aluminium reduction process. The intelligent monitoring system SMARTCrane allows real-time monitoring of key equipment parameters and compliance with predefined operation sequences, thus ensuring optimal and repeatable production. This intelligent monitoring system, thanks to its ability to operate precisely and instantaneously, contributes to a significant decrease in performance variations and improves the stability of operations. With SMARTCrane, operations can maintain high repeatability in their jobs, reducing performance fluctuations and minimizing production losses, and maintenance can improve efficiency by anticipating their activities. Real-time collected data and predictive models enable proactive monitoring and continuous optimization of pot parameters. SMARTCrane is a result of close cooperation between aluminium producers and Fives engineers. Utilizing the equipment knowledge among Fives engineers, on specific crane features such as lifting devices, compressors, or insulation monitoring devices, the system can process the data and issue automatic alerts. In this paper we focus on SMARTCrane used on PTM, however, Fives deployed it also on Furnace Tending Assemblies (FTA). In conclusion, SMARTCrane offers an innovative approach to improve the efficiency and stability of aluminium production operations.