Web-break early warning
Cameras at the draws where breaks tend to start flag edge cracks, holes and wrinkles, and the system trends those events so a rising count prompts action before the break.
Packaging, paper & wood
Find the fault before the web breaks
We inspect print and glue lines with AI vision, and monitor the drives, dryers and saws behind them, on continuous lines where an unplanned stop is counted in tonnes of broke and hours of rethreading.
What goes wrong
Continuous lines punish slow discovery
On a paper machine or a corrugator, a web break is never just a stop. The machine has to be cleared and rethreaded, the broke has to be handled, and the schedule for every downstream order shifts. Most breaks have a cause that was visible earlier: an edge crack, a hole, a draw running slack, a dryer section running unevenly.
Converting has its own quiet failures. A folder-gluer that skips a few centimeters of glue line produces cartons that look perfect on the pallet and pop open on your customer's case erector. A print station drifting out of registration can run a full order before anyone pulls a sheet. And in sawmills and wood-products plants, the saws, chippers and blowers run in dust that hides problems from view, where a hot bearing is a fire risk as well as a maintenance problem.
Maintenance teams in these plants cover hundreds of rotating assets across long machines. Route-based vibration readings once a month can't keep up with a gearbox that degrades in two weeks.
Applications
Packaging line inspection and machine health for continuous processes
Print and registration
Misregistration, missing ink, smears and color shift on printed corrugated and folding cartons, checked on every sheet rather than on a pulled sample.
Glue-line inspection
Hot-melt glue shows clearly in thermal images, so a Lensnode T confirms presence, position and continuity on folder-gluers. Cold glue is checked in visible light, sometimes with a tracer additive.
Corrugator drives and gearboxes
Wireless Pulsenode W sensors on drives, gearboxes and fans trend vibration and temperature. With Care Verified, an analyst checks each alert before it reaches your planner.
Dryer and press-section thermal
Fixed thermal views of dryer cans, bearing housings and press rolls. An uneven temperature profile across the machine can point to steam-supply or condensate problems before quality drifts.
Sawmill and wood-products equipment
Saw arbors, chippers, debarkers, hogs and dust-collection fans monitored for vibration and temperature, without running new cable through a dusty, high-vibration building.
Recommended stack
The stack, application by application
| Application | Hardware | Service |
|---|---|---|
| Web-break early warning | Lensnode V at critical draws, encoder-triggered; Gatepoint G4 | AI Visual Inspection |
| Print and registration | Lensnode V with strobed illumination; Gatepoint G2 or G4 | AI Visual Inspection |
| Glue-line inspection | Lensnode T for hot melt, Lensnode V for cold glue; Gatepoint G2 | Thermal & Multispectral Monitoring |
| Corrugator drives and gearboxes | Pulsenode W on bearings and gearboxes; Pulsenode C on drive motors | Predictive Maintenance with Care Verified |
| Dryer and press section | Lensnode T fixed views through viewing ports; Gatepoint G4 | Thermal & Multispectral Monitoring |
| Sawmill rotating equipment | Pulsenode W; Pulsenode U for early lubrication faults | Predictive Maintenance |
Environment and compliance
Dust, steam and heat on long machines
- Combustible dust. Wood and paper dust can be combustible, and many of these areas are classified. The Pulsenode W has a Class I Division 2 variant, which covers flammable gases and vapors, not dust. For dust locations we work from your area classification and dust hazard analysis, specify suitably rated enclosures, and keep electronics outside classified areas where that is the safer choice. We'll tell you plainly where a component can and can't go.
- Heat and humidity. Lensnode is rated for −20 to 55 °C, which rules out mounting inside a dryer hood. We image through viewing ports or from outside the hood, and keep windows clear with purge air.
- Vibration. Camera mounts on long machines are isolated from frame vibration so images stay sharp at speed, and every inspection camera is triggered from an encoder rather than a timer.
- Long distances. Wireless Pulsenode W sensors avoid hundreds of meters of new cable along a corrugator or paper machine, with a battery life of up to 5 years at hourly sampling.
Honest fit
When we're the right call for a mill or converter
A good fit when
- Converters where glue-line or print defects drive customer complaints and returns
- Corrugators and paper machines with a history of drive, gearbox or fan failures
- Mills where a small maintenance team covers hundreds of rotating assets
- Sites that want thermal coverage of dryers and press sections between manual surveys
Probably not when
- Full-width web inspection across a wide, high-speed paper machine. A dedicated line-scan web inspection system is the right tool, and we can complement it rather than replace it.
- Plants looking for a fire detection or suppression system. Thermal monitoring is an early warning for maintenance, not a life-safety system.
See it in context
Corrugator drive health, modeled end to end
Condition monitoring on 38 corrugator drives
Pulsenode W on critical drives, gearboxes and fans, with Care Verified analysts checking every alert. In the modeled scenario, unplanned downtime on monitored assets falls about 35%.
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Predictive Maintenance & Condition Monitoring
Vibration, ultrasound, temperature and motor-current monitoring with fault diagnostics and human-verified alerts.
Read more
Continuous Thermal & Multispectral Monitoring
Fixed radiometric thermal for glue lines, dryer sections and the electrical rooms that feed them.
Read moreFAQ
Questions we hear often
Can wireless sensors survive a corrugator or paper machine?
The Pulsenode W is IP68-rated, battery-powered and mounts directly on bearing housings and gearboxes. Battery life is up to 5 years at hourly sampling; faster sampling on critical assets shortens it, and the Console tracks every battery so replacements are planned rather than discovered.
Do you replace our existing web inspection system?
No. Full-width web inspection on a wide, fast machine is specialized equipment, and if you have it, keep it. We add what it typically doesn't cover, such as thermal views of dryers and press rolls, condition monitoring on drives and targeted cameras at the draws where your breaks start.
How do alerts reach our maintenance team?
Alerts route to SMS, email, Microsoft Teams or Slack, and can open work orders in your CMMS, including IBM Maximo, SAP PM, Fiix, Limble or UpKeep. With Care Verified, a Perflens analyst checks each alert within 4 hours on business days before it reaches your planner.
Can you work in our dust-classified areas?
Sometimes, with care. We work from your area classification and dust hazard analysis, and we'll tell you which components can be installed in which areas and which must stay outside. We won't put equipment in a classified location it isn't rated for.
What does condition monitoring cost?
The asset-monitoring subscription starts at $89 per monitored asset per month (minimum 25 assets, 36-month term), including Pulsenodes, gateway, Console and Care Essentials. Care Verified adds $18 per asset per month. See pricing.
Start with the drive you'd least like to lose
A 45-minute discovery call is enough to map your critical assets and inspection points and tell you whether a Proof of Value on 25 of them makes sense.