Keeping an eye on conditions throughout the entire facility: Schaeffler offers digital services that make analyses based on vibration and operating data available with extreme ease. (Image: Getty / Schaeffler)

Schaeffler to appear at the SPS for the first time

Digital services for rolling bearing applications

Virtually hardware-free condition monitoring for auxiliary units

Schaeffler is set to make its first appearance at the SPS automation technology trade show – as a specialist for digital maintenance services. Schaeffler will be presenting both solutions for interpreting vibration and operating data from machines and facilities already equipped with sensor technology and for analyzing machines and facilities that are still entirely without sensors. Both of these market segments offer the processing industry significant potential for increasing OEE and open up growth opportunities for Schaeffler in terms of its own domain expertise.

In the majority of production facilities and machines, auxiliary units in particular have thus far been monitored either insufficiently or not at all. The consequence of this is that nobody has a complete overview of the machine’s condition that includes all of the subsystems and auxiliary units. At the SPS, Schaeffler will be demonstrating how this gap can be filled using its ConditionAnalyzer digital service, which automatically analyzes data from a range of wired vibration sensors and generates precise diagnoses. Schaeffler will additionally be presenting its ConditionAssistant application, which is a solution that requires virtually no hardware and analyzes further measurement data such as temperature and noise. Both of these applications give the customer digital access to Schaeffler’s domain expertise and generate tangible added value for maintenance technicians.

Rauli Hantikainen, head of the Industry 4.0 strategic business field, explains: “This gives operators and maintenance technicians a simple way of identifying specific rolling bearing failure mechanisms and interpreting the bearings’ condition, as well as putting relevant maintenance information at their disposal. Only when we have a complete overview of the condition of all our assets can optimized, reliable operation of machines and facilities be achieved without unplanned downtimes.”