Mechanical Technology January 2016

⎪ Power transmission, bearings, bushes and seals ⎪

Innovative solutions for powering the future Following Hannover 2015 and the publication of SKF’s ‘Power the Future’ report, this article presents a selection of SKF’s leading products and smart innovations to boost mobility and connectivity.

S KF has been developing ad- vanced solutions to customers operating across industry since 1907. The company utilises its vast experience and industry insight to continuously produce new technologies, which deliver competitive advantages to customers, such as improved productivity and sustainability. This experience and expertise has established SKF as an industry leader in product design and development. “We attribute this to a forward thinking culture and a commitment to delivering cutting-edge solutions that meet the needs of customers, including bearings and units, seals, mechatronics, services and lubrication systems. We call this

SKF Knowledge Engineering and it is this approach that will power the future of industry,” says Bernd Stephan, senior vice president of group technology devel- opment at SKF. Innovative new bearing rating life model SKF has launched the SKF Generalised Bearing Life Model, a pioneering new rating life model for bearings that is specifically designed to help engineers to calculate a more realistic bearing life by considering more influencing factors than before. The new model is a major step forward for the industry and will play a vital role in enabling OEMs and end users to match bearings and application conditions with even greater certainty, resulting in improved machine life and reduced operating costs. Developed as part of the SKF EnCom­ pass Field Performance Programme, the new bearing rating life model will enable original equipment designers and end users to more closely match bearings to actual application conditions, therefore further optimising bearing performance. The current bearing life model calcula- tion is primarily based on damage below the bearing’s surface. However, SKF’s experience over a number of decades has confirmed that today’s high quality bear- ings rarely fail because of sub-surface damage from inadequate load capacity. They generally fail as a result of surface damage caused by such factors as contamination, inadequate lubrication, surface distress and wear. The new model takes all of these factors into account. Power the future and SKF’s new report In partnership with industrial technology experts and academics from all over the world, SKF has released a new thought leadership report focusing on the future of manufacturing and engineering. The document, entitled ‘Power the Future’,

Bernd Stephan, senior vice president of group technology development at SKF. features contributions by specialists from within SKF and leading external authori- ties. It focuses on current and emerging trends in engineering technology and processes and outlines how the factory, machinery and the workforce will evolve in the near future. ‘Power the Future’ will enable engi- neers and students to develop a greater knowledge of the main areas of interest that are predicted to become increasingly prevalent to future technology develop- ments in a variety of key global industrial segments. At last year ’s Hannover Fair, SKF launched a variety of new product inno- vations to boost mobility and connectivity in industrial applications. These include SKF Enlight, TKSA 51 and SKF Insight. SKF Enlight is a package that com- bines a powerful new mobile app with a special Bluetooth-enabled sensor. It allows non-expert staff to gather expert data such as vibration and temperature information, using standard mobile de- vices on demand. The package features three main elements: a mobile app entitled Data Collect, which turns a standard mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet into a data collection device; the SKF Wireless Machine Condition Detector (WMCD), which is a special sensor that measures vibration and temperature data and relays it to Data Collect via Bluetooth; and, if appropriate, rug- gedised Atex Zone 1-compliant tablets and smartphones to enable users to collect data in hazardous industries such SKF smart innovations boost mobility and connectivity

SKF’s Generalised Bearing Life Model takes into account the fact

that modern bearings generally fail as a result of surface damage caused by such factors as contamination, inad- equate lubrication, surface distress and wear.

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Mechanical Technology — January 2016