GRAZ - International technology group Andritz has announced a partnership with KCF Technologies, a major provider of machine health solutions,.

The collaboration will aim to offer Andritz's customers a differentiated and comprehensive solution to their complex manufacturing challenges. By combining KCF's machine health solutions with Andritz's extensive expertise in equipment design and process optimization, it is hoped that both companies will further improve customers' plant safety, machine reliability, asset management, and system uptime in the pulp and paper industry.

"Our partnership with KCF Technologies will take our expertise in machinery diagnostics and overall plant process know-how to a new level. Customers will benefit from our cooperation with enhanced performance of their assets," said Heinz Autischer, chief automation officer, Andritz Group.

The convergence of Metris – Andritz Digital Solution platform and KCF's Smart diagnostics platform will combine process optimization with real-time machine health data. Having both solutions seamlessly connected and integrated into one workflow will provide customers with complete visibility for monitoring and analyzing equipment anomalies. In addition, quality work requests and maintenance activities are performed constantly enabling comprehensive system optimization.

"KCF Technologies is excited to partner with Andritz to amplify the value brought from both companies' offerings," added Jeremy Frank, CEO of KCF Technologies. "This is the first solution at scale to bring together asset knowledge, machine health data, and process optimization in one box. The benefit of the cooperation is a solution built for maximum value creation for our customers.

"The collaboration is a transformative step towards optimizing manufacturing on a global landscape. Through this agreement, Andritz and KCF are focused on improving customers' operating efficiency and safety with an integrated solution."