THE SITUATION BEFORE
A pump nobody wanted to visit
Nynas is one of those industrial companies that refuses to wait for something to fail. Instead, they choose to stay ahead, using technology that provides control before problems arise.
At Nynas’ production facility in Nynäshamn, this air pump operates around the clock. Its purpose is to inject compressed air into the wastewater treatment plant’s sand filtration system for residual products. Without the pump, the filters stop functioning. Without functioning filters, return water risks failing to meet environmental compliance standards.
The pump is located far away from the rest of the facility. On top of that, it is subjected to intense high-frequency vibrations every time it starts — approximately once every hour.
The installation is isolated from the rest of the plant. And the surrounding air may contain elevated levels of sulfur dioxide.
Historically, the solution was manual inspections. But manually inspecting a remotely located pump in an ATEX-classified environment is neither simple nor safe.
The problem vibrations create
This is exactly the kind of environment where bolted joints deteriorate without visible signs. High-frequency vibrations, over and over again, hour after hour. The result is that bolts gradually lose preload over time. The only way to know it was happening was to physically visit the pump and manually inspect every bolt.
This is how bolted-joint-related operational failures typically begin, not through sudden loosening, but through a gradual loss of clamping force that goes unnoticed. Vibrations, thermal movement, and wear do their work slowly, silently, and invisibly.
Now I have the system on my computer. I can sit in my office and check it whenever I want. It’s incredibly convenient , but above all, it’s safe.
What happens if the bolts loosen?
A loose bolt is rarely the actual problem, it is the starting point.
In this specific case, the pump itself does not create a direct leakage risk since it handles air. But the consequences spread further into the system. The filters stop functioning, contaminated water moves downstream, and critical parts of the process may be affected.
It is a pattern Tamas has seen before. A weakened joint causes movement in a pipe. The pipe begins wearing against its supports. The supports eventually fail. Suddenly, the issue is no longer about a single bolt, it becomes a matter of a raw material pipeline moving incorrectly and risking catastrophic failure.
Nynas handles raw materials, chemicals, and gases that must never be released into the atmosphere. That is why safety and control are absolutely critical. Nynas emphasizes the importance of systematic and proactive safety work to ensure sustainable and reliable operations.
THE SOLUTION
Full control without leaving the office
Strainlabs sensors were installed on the air pump’s critical bolted joints. The sensors measure every 10 minutes, 144 data points per day and continuously delivering information about joint integrity directly to Tamas’ computer.
Tamas and his colleagues no longer need to physically inspect the pump to know whether it is operating safely. Instead, they can monitor trends in real time directly from the office. If something begins to change, if a joint starts loosening, if the load profile shifts, or if temperature rises unexpectedly, it becomes visible in the system long before it develops into a serious issue.
Previously, we depended on someone physically going out to inspect it. Now we have complete control all the time.
An unexpected bonus: Temperature monitoring
During installation, Tamas noticed that the sensors not only monitor bolted joint integrity, they also record temperature. That opened an entirely new dimension of monitoring capability.
Temperature increases are often early warning signs that something is beginning to fail, along a pipe section, inside a bearing, or within a flange connection. Being able to trace a temperature change to an exact timestamp and location makes it possible not only to detect a problem, but also to identify its root cause.
Temperature monitoring was an unexpected bonus. You can detect temperature increases and trace a problem back to its source. Not just that something is vibrating, but why.
Results
What Nynas has achieved
1.Staff no longer need to visit a hazardous environment
The pump sits in an ATEX-classified zone with sulphur dioxide exposure. With Strainlabs, no one needs to go there for routine checks. Safety improves without losing oversight.
A fact-based picture of joint status for the first time
The vibration environment required regular manual inspections to catch joints that had come loose. With Strainlabs, Nynäs gained continuous, fact-based visibility of joint status – without sending personnel to the site.
From reactive to planned maintenance
Instead of responding to failures, Nynäs can now detect when a joint is beginning to change – and schedule the repair during an already planned shutdown.
One avoided shutdown is worth One Million SEK
An unplanned stop costs Nynäs one million kronor per day – per plant. They have five. Early warnings from Strainlabs make it possible to avoid unplanned stops entirely.
NEXT STEP
Nynas takes the lead in industrial digitalization
Nynas is one of the industrial companies actively choosing to future-proof and digitalize maintenance operations, both to reduce costs and improve personnel safety. And they have already identified the next step.
Tamas describes several flange connections located in difficult-to-access areas.
High-risk, safety-critical installations surrounded by substances that must never leak. Continuous monitoring of these joint connections is the natural next application.
In parallel, Nynas is exploring a training rig equipped with Strainlabs sensors, allowing personnel to practice correct torque tightening procedures before working on critical bolted joints in specialty chemical environments.
Long term, Tamas envisions a fully digitalized monitoring infrastructure across the facility, covering temperature, gas leakage, vibration, and pipe support monitoring. Not as one massive project, but as a gradual process of gaining control over areas that have traditionally remained unseen.
There are amazing opportunities to digitalize this facility.