Intelligent Condition Monitoring for Lime Kilns 399 AKIDA 2006 - Institut für Bergwerks- und Hüttenmaschinenkunde, RWTH Aachen Intelligent Condition Monitoring for Lime Kilns Prof. D.Sc.Tech. Sulo Lahdelma University of Oulu, Finland Abteilung für Maschinenbau, Laboratorium für Mechatronik und Maschinendiagnostik, Lehrstuhl für Maschinendiagnostik Senior Assistant M.Sc.Tech. Esko Juuso University of Oulu, Finland Abteilung für Verfahrens- und Umwelttechnik, Laboratorium für Regelungstechnik 1 Introduction Condition monitoring enables reliable and economical way of action for mainte- nance operations in modern industrial plants. Increasing number of measure- ment points and more demanding problems require automatic fault detection. Advanced signal processing methods expose failures earlier and provide infor- mation on suitable operating conditions of machines. Intelligent methods have been increasingly used in model based fault diagnosis and intelligent analysers. These methods provide various techniques for combining a large number of features. Lime kilns are large machines, approximately 4 meters in diameter and even more than 100 meters long, with very slow rotational speeds. Depending on production conditions, the kiln must run at different production capacity and ro- tational speed. The speed is controlled together with the fuel feed and the draught fan speed to obtain good operating conditions [1]. Temperatures in the hot end are very high.