Galloo’s primary business is the recovery and recycling of scrap metal. For them, the circular business model is their primary mission as they plan to achieve 100 percent valorization of waste by reusing and recycling it into secondary raw materials. Every year, the company recycles over 1 million tons of steel and 60,000 tons of various other metals. With this enormous processing capacity, Galloo is one of the most important recycling companies in Europe.
Galloo has a large inventory of assets, including many motors and pumps. Proper maintenance and governance are essential for these machines to operate 24x7. Periodic checks were performed at predetermined intervals to ensure their proper operation. However, Galloo couldn't prevent some of the equipment from stopping unexpectedly, resulting in a temporary halt in the recycling process. These outages are not only a waste of money and time, but they also disrupt business processes and maintenance planning.
In early 2019, Galloo launched the digital pilot project by monitoring three of its motors with ABB AbilityTM Condition Monitoring for powertrains. The company, convinced of the advantages of real-time data insights, decided to expand the pilot with the help of ABB channel partner Equans Partners Solutions into a full-fledged project, with a total of 30 pieces of electrical motion equipment now being monitored.
ABB AbilityTM Condition Monitoring for powertrains can measure key parameters from the surface of the equipment, enabling monitoring of operational variables and health indicators. This includes, for example, availability, number of starts, running conditions, temperature, current, vibration, and fault events. As a result, unexpected breakdowns can be avoided, and maintenance can be planned according to actual needs rather than based on fixed schedules or unexpected breakdowns.
Making your equipment last longer
We live in a linear economy where products have a limited lifetime and once their usability value is decreased, they are scrapped in most cases. A circular industrial economy is proposing an alternative where the value of products is designed, preserved, and optimized to last for as long as possible, and where all waste is seen as resources. Galloo already contributes to a circular economy through its business model, but they now want to take this approach a step further in its operations, by ensuring that they properly manage the life cycle of its assets with deeper insight into the health of the powertrain.
Through the monitoring solution, Galloo’s technical engineers are assisted by ABB service experts in analyzing and making use of all the captured data. ABB experts interpret it and provide service expertise to Galloo through periodic updates on the status of the monitored assets. "This extended the lifetime of our equipment without increasing downtime," said Olivier Courtois, Technical Manager at Galloo.
Galloo recycling plan; Copyright: Equans 
Galloo recycling plan; Copyright: Equans
Offering this solution together with our partner helps us to bring the expertise and capabilities together to enhance Galloo’s business performance and to help them be even more resource efficient. By working hand in hand with our partner, we combine ABB’s wide portfolio offering with Equans’ intelligence in the local market and availability.
"Instead of performing reactive maintenance, replacements are now performed only when necessary. Condition monitoring, in this way, contributes to more efficient management and maintenance of all equipment parts, leading to a significant reduction in unplanned downtime and waste," says Ewout Tijtgat, Senior Project Manager at Equans Process Solutions.
Return on investment in just one year
Courtois considers ABB’s digital solution to be a prime example of Industry 4.0 in action - “The plug & play system offers an online overview of live, actual equipment status at all times, and warns us when a threat is identified for any part. In this way, the physical world of our machines is coupled to digital governance systems, easy to consult on our mobile phones”. Courtois is aware of the cost savings that have already more than compensated for the investment: "We have earned back the investment of purchasing and commissioning the condition monitoring after one year. Everything that comes after this is pure profit.”
